Get Home Safely with the help of smart lights

The aim of the Get Home Safely project was to guide people home safely in an urban environment. Based on a user survey, the smart lights tested at Hyväntoivonpuisto park in Jätkäsaari provided the district with a feeling of safety and made it more atmospheric in particular.

Forum Virium Helsinki provided a test platform for the project in an urban area under construction in Jätkäsaari, where the aim was to test how smart lighting could increase the feeling of safety in areas that people perceive as unsafe due to poor lighting.

Duration, partners and funding

The lighting solution was developed in collaboration with experts from three countries. The project was coordinated by Technical University Berlin’s CyPhyLab. The other project partners were Forum Virium Helsinki and Aalto University from Finland, Technical University Berlin and Fraunhofer HHI from Germany and Telecom Italy and Fluxedo from Italy.
Forum Virium Helsinki was responsible for the piloting of the project in Finland.
The project ran for 2019 and had a total budget of approximately EUR 873,000. Forum Virium Helsinki’s work was funded by EIT Digital, with co-financing from the City of Helsinki, totalling EUR 163,187.
The project also involved cooperation with local operators Stara and Elisa. Stara was commissioned to handle the installation of the smart lighting, while Elisa was responsible for its connectivity.

The role of Forum Virium Helsinki

Forum Virium Helsinki served as the coordinator of the pilot conducted in Helsinki. The first step was to determine an optimal testing area in the residential of district of Jätkäsaari, based on information collected. The determination of the testing area was facilitated by an online survey targeted at the area’s residents and a related workshop held at Jätkäsaari library, lux measurements carried out in collaboration with Aalto University as the days grew darker and cooperation with the City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division and Stara. Communication with interest groups played a major role in the success of the pilot: in addition to FVH’s own communication channels, other channels utilised in the realisation of the project included the Jätkäsaari Liike Facebook group and the notice boards of libraries and other local public places, such as cafés and restaurants.

Key achievements of the project

One of the aims of EIT Digital projects is to create business out of innovations developed by universities and the scientific community, based on which TuBerlin created a startup called Unimas. The Get Home Safely pilot offered an opportunity for the project development of the Hexalight smart light and the Skýra mobile application created in the project. The digital twin created by Aalto University can help illustrate the usefulness of smart lighting in city and spatial planning.

Benefit to Helsinki

The pilot involved the collection of data on people’s movement on foot in Jätkäsaari and feedback on the area’s existing lighting and the lack thereof. The cooperation with international operators carried out in the project supported the City of Helsinki’s strategy and strengthened Helsinki’s reputation as a test platform. The project was carried out using 4G LTE technology. This also helped illustrate the possible uses of future technologies, such as 5G, which was one of the aims of the project.