Design of a Connected Security Lighting System for Pedestrian Safety in Smart Cities

Historical and ongoing pedestrian anxiety about night crimes in alleyways is an important issue in our society. Therefore, recommended illuminance levels in pedestrian alleys have been established and security lighting meeting such illuminance levels has been installed to ensure proper brightness. However, pedestrians may still feel that such areas are too dark and want to ensure their safety through sufficient brightness, especially late at night. In this study, a smart security lighting system, which was namely the Connected Security Lighting System (CSLS), has been designed to reduce the pedestrians’ fear of crime in smart cities. The CSLS increases the brightness of security lighting by turning on additional lights to relax pedestrians’ psychological fear of crime because of the increased sense of surveillance. Such a change may also deter potential offenders. The CSLS employs various sensors and information communication technologies that are widely used in interior and outdoor smart lighting applications. It also uses a beacon device and smartphone application to effectively detect pedestrians while infrared sensors in the CSLS are activated to detect any pedestrians approaching from the opposite direction after the beacon device is initiated. The method for controlling the CSLS is described and a prototype system is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this security lighting system in smart cities.