Maryland, USA, June 20, 2014: It’s an interesting experiment initiated by Internet of Things (IoT) cellular network provider SIGFOX, involving ordinary citizens.
The company is participating in the Montgomery County, M.D., project to install automated safety-alert networks to protect vulnerable residents. The Safe Community Alert Network (SCALE) is part of the SmartAmerica Challenge, sponsored by the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows and the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST). The challenge, said the company, was to demonstrate how the IoT and smart technologies could benefit large segments of the population.
Working with housing developer, the Montgomery Housing Partnership, SCALE has deployed a variety of connected sensors in residents’ apartments that will detect different environmental distress factors. These include smoke, heat, light, carbon monoxide, humidity, power, acoustics, and even if a resident falls. Using SIGFOX’s network, these sensors are connected with FiberNet, the Montgomery County broadband network, without relying on private broadband services, to alert emergency response services in the case a resident is in danger.
“This is a good example of how SIGFOX’s technology can help bring the benefits of the Internet of Things to a wide range of people, even those who don’t have broadband services,” said Luke D’Arcy, SIGFOX Director of US operations. “Too many fatal fires are caused by faulty smoke detectors. The SIGFOX network allows the fire department to cost effectively monitor the performance of these devices ensuring that residents are protected.”
Besides SIGFOX and Montgomery Housing Partnership, participants in the SCALE project are the University of California-Irvine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IBM, Twilio, Schneider Electric, Montgomery County, M.D., and the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.
“The point of SmartAmerica is not technology for technology’s sake, but how it touches the lives and the beneficiaries,” said Geoff Mulligan, a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow. “In a lot of cases, we talked about creating jobs, but what was really important also is about how it might save lives. SCALE talks specifically about saving lives.”
As this website had previously reported, the French company has been in the news recently for actively eyeing the US market to install its cellular network. SIGFOX hasbeen tying up with several companies around the world including with the United Kingdom-based communications infrastructure company Arqiva,wherein the latter will build and run a national IoT network, using SIGFOX technology. Participating in SCALE marks another big step in SIGFOX’s rapid globalization.
Image Credit: SIGFOX
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