Echelon and IBM Watson IoT Enable Outdoor Lighting to Enhance Public Safety

Internet of Things (IoT) company Echelon Corporation has announced its collaboration with IBM Watson IoT to bring cognitive intelligence to its adaptive streetlight control platform, helping municipalities transform into smarter, safer and more sustainable cities. Echelon will infuse Watson IoT capabilities into its next-generation, adaptive LED lighting control solution with a goal of forming a pervasive, more intelligent infrastructure that can integrate IoT applications to address municipal safety, environment and energy challenges.

IBM Watson IoT is a cognitive system that learns from and infuses intelligence into the physical world. By combining IBM Watson IoT data with Echelon’s IoT connected street lighting architecture, municipal leaders can gain significant insights which they can use to improve public safety. IBM Watson IoT capabilities closely align with Echelon’s promise to municipalities – to enable them to more cost-effectively leverage innovations in technology that drive safety and sustainability initiatives.

“With a mission to continually advance our adaptive streetlighting solution, we are excited at the prospect of integrating the cognitive and real-time analytics capability of IBM Watson IoT into Echelon's platform to enhance its inherent intelligence,” said Sohrab Modi, CTO, Echelon. “If mayors and town selectmen can have infrastructures that adapt to the data produced by billions of interconnected sensors and devices, they can positively impact crime and weather-related accident statistics. The omniscience that IBM Watson IoT will bring to our next-generation technology will be a huge asset for local and state governments.”

With its Lumewave platform, Echelon is bringing its history in developing protocols and communication control solutions to bear on the IBM Watson IoT collaboration, in addition to its architectures for multi-application IIoT networks. The Echelon portfolio supports a wide range of lighting and building communications including LON and LonTalk/IP, BACnet, Modbus, DALI and more for a broad selection of devices to be integrated into an open platform.