Instrumentation Technologies, a high-tech company behind exceptional global brands such as Libera, Red Pitaya and Cella has recently won Itron’s inaugural Smart City Challenge. The company, with more than 20 years of experience, is located in Slovenia, Europe, and creates groundbreaking solutions in the field of particle accelerators, IoT, smart cities and MedTech. Their team of engineers has a proven track record of delivering integrated software and hardware solutions in the most technologically demanding as well as emerging markets.
Itron, an American giant and a world leader in IoT technologies for utilities and smart cities, which is present in more than 100 countries around the world invited IoT solution providers to participate in their Smart City Challenge with the aim of improving citizen welfare by using breakthrough solutions. The London City Challenge presented contestants with a problem they are facing: more than 20 deaths per year result from falls into the river Thames. To increase safety along the river, they asked the contestants to provide a solution which will monitor the use of safety equipment and falls into the river, leading to an acceleration in response time.
The team at Instrumentation Technologies came up with an original solution that will solve both issues. Firstly, they developed a small, battery-powered device that will monitor the lifebelts alongside the river Thames. The system will be able to control whether the lifebelt is present in the housing and will initiate an alarm if taken out. If the lifebelt is not in the housing for more than eight seconds, the device will immediately send a message to the authorities via Itron’s IoT network. To solve the second issue, Instrumentation Technologies used their existing edge devices and innovative, custom built sensor electronics to provide a jumper detector system. The system is able to identify the time and place of a fall and uses advanced data processing to recognize people from other descending objects, including birds. This solution represents the future of response services around the world with its agile approach.
Instrumentation Technologies adopted Itron’s existing IoT network and added an innovative sensing solution to outpace several fierce competitors and won Itron’s smart city challenge. With the proposed solution the company demonstrated that cities can improve the welfare of their citizens and address safety issues using their technology. As a winner, Instrumentation Technologies will, with the support of Itron, continue to collaborate with cities to disseminate this breakthrough solution, opening new markets for the Slovenian company. They believe the City of London solution will set the trend in cities around the world.
