See.Sense will provide light sensors for cyclist as part of U.K’s smart city initiative CityVerve
U.K. telecom operator BT announced the launch of a new project with See.Sense, a cycling-focused technology company from Northern Ireland, to provide sensor-enabled and connected bike lights to up to 180 cyclists across Manchester as part of the U.K.’s smart city project CityVerve.
The See.Sense light sensors, known as ICONs, connect via Bluetooth to an app on Android phones. The app will transmit anonymized data on the cyclist’s environment – such as the quality of the road surface, light levels, as well as cycling routes, collisions and near-miss events – back to BT’s internet of things (IoT) data hub.
See.Sense’s lights are designed specifically to be daylight-visible, enhancing cyclist safety in all lighting conditions, while flashing brighter and faster in riskier situations such as round junctions and roundabouts.
“This is an exciting project to be working on with Manchester City Council and CityVerve. There are wide range of opportunities emerging from the real-time data collected from the lights and other sources stored in our platform, bringing valuable insights for the city’s infrastructure and policies, and helping deelop a safer and better cycling experience for the people of Manchester,” John Davies, chief researcher of future technologies at BT, said.
“This project is providing us with an opportunity to have a closed trial for data collection at scale, and show how our unique crowdsourced data can be used to reduce barriers to cycling, particularly around safety. Better data will help to make cycling more visible to policy makers, and allow cities to take adaptive, data-driven decisions. This will also provide the opportunity for improved integration of cycling into the city’s mobility plans,” Irene McAleese, co-founder of See.Sense, said.
BT said that the trial will run from August 14 until the end of the CityVerve smart city project, and the cyclists can keep using their lights following the end of the trial. CityVerve bills itself as creating a smart city blueprint, and is led by a 21-member consortium including the Manchester City Council, Manchester Science Partnerships, BT, Cisco and others.
