The Korean government has decided to introduce Artificial Intelligence street lamps equipped with IoT sensors and use them for traffic accident prevention projects. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Information and Communication, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security have started full-scale development and demonstration of ‘Smart Road Lighting Platform’.
The project uses streetlights to communicate various information on the road environment to pedestrians and vehicles such as accidents, congestion, freezing, traffic volume, pedestrian path, direction and speed of movement of vehicles, acceleration, reverse driving of vehicles, falls and potholes, and to prevent traffic accidents.
For five years from this year to 2023, four ministries will spend 26 billion won (about US$22.8 million) to jointly develop the project. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is planning to carry out overall tasks such as establishing strategies for services and demonstration test beds provided on road lighting platforms, and will divide tasks by ministries such as information processing and communication platforms (Ministry of Science and Technology), multi-sensor convergence road lighting systems (Ministry of Industry), and linking technologies for urban disaster and safety management (Administration).
“In case of sudden accidents in areas where there are frequent accidents such as crosswalks, intersections, and tunnels, we will be able to immediately deal with them,” an official from the Ministry of Land said. “We expect that they will be used as a customized safety control tower for multiple accidents within the city center.”
