Trend Watch, April 2018

Could glowing trees light our streets?

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say cities may be able to cut back on power use and emissions with plants and trees that glow at night.

If successful, MIT hopes their research could be used to provide low-intensity indoor lighting, or transform trees into self-powered streetlights, according to the Urban Developer.

Currently researchers have embedded specialised nanoparticles, including the chemical that gives fireflies their glow, into the leaves of watercress plants. The plants were shown to give off a dim glow for nearly four hours.

This new method avoids the need to introduce a glowing gene into the plant, a far more laborious task, and with further optimisation the engineers say they could light up a desktop – or even a streetscape.

“Plants can self-repair, they have their own energy, and they are already adapted to the outdoor environment. We think this is an idea whose time has come,” MIT professor of chemical engineering Michael Strano said in the article.

“Our work very seriously opens up the doorway to streetlamps that are nothing but treated trees, and to indirect lighting around homes.”

Future versions of the research could see engineers spray or paint the nanoparticles onto leaves, ultimately transforming them for life.

Photo: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sensors in public spaces for smart and social cities:

Who is using furniture, why and for how long? A team from UNSW aims to find out, and use collected data to develop place management strategies with project partner Georges River Council.

Street Furniture Australia is the industry partner for the research, known as the Smart Social Spaces project.

“The team will record the detailed use of two public spaces. At first, behaviour mapping will provide detailed observational information about what’s happening in both spaces. The team will then embed invisible digital sensors in and on street furniture,” writes the group of researchers on The Conversation.

“We will target picnic tables, rubbish bins, barbecues, seats, cigarette ash receptacles, bubblers, power points and lights. The sensors will measure usage, including water and power consumption. They will also provide real-time messages to the council on whether, for example, an ash receptacle is overheating, or a street bollard is damaged.

“Information like this can be used to improve the amenity and user experience of public open spaces, as well as help to manage these spaces more efficiently.”

The researchers hope the data will assist local government decision-making, by providing quantitative evidence about how different furniture configurations can improve a community’s experience of public space.

“It is hard to predict just how much will need to alter as our cities densify,” they add, and smart cities technologies and programs can help ensure that elements of the public realm are efficiently and appropriately serving residents’ needs.

Read the full article here.

Photo: DrTorstenHenning, Wikimedia Commons.