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"It's better than acquiring boxes and hardware …There needs to be a shift in our mentality towards utilities. We have electricity, water - the fourth or fifth utility should be information." - Dr Theo Tryfonas (smart cities expert), Bristol University's Faculty of Engineering.

Thinking out of the box requires making use of most humble things existing around us to achieve a bigger purpose .So the next time you cross a humble street light after dark, spare a thought for all that can be achieved using this existing infrastructure. There has been a lot of work carried out on how to make street lights sharper and more energy efficient as they are upgraded to LEDs, but using them to increasingly help fight crime and sense other factors is the next step forward. That's the reason street lights are now becoming the eyes and ears of "smart" cities . The benefits could be many including more calm and safer roads, considerable cost saving, better monitoring of different features like traffic congestion and other environmental factors.

In a data-driven world it makes sense to adapt existing street furniture for this purpose. Lamp posts double as data collectors, communicating with a central control system that makes automated decisions about when they are on, for how long, and the brightness.

Development of such projects is going on in some parts of the world resulting in substantial improvements in the existing infrastructure. Silver Spring Networks has developed its own smart lighting infrastructure and has clients worldwide. It claims its technology can halve a city's energy bill. Copenhagen, for example, is on track to exceed predictions of 50% in savings, says Brian McGuigan, European director of smart cities and lighting at Silver Spring.

In Paris, the day's weather conditions, captured by sensors, are a factor included in what time the city's famous street lights should turn on. Even though the French capital declined to switch to LED bulbs due to more aesthetic and cultural reasons as they ‘didn't want to disrupt the colour of the city of Paris’, the new controls(using sensors) alone gave them a 30% energy saving. Even though the long  term value of such projects can be great but the financial benefits of course come with their own set of effects and repercussions. Cities are a lot more than just statistical measures – so the changes would need more than simply funding such projects in terms of cultural changes. Bringing changes that effect lifestyle of people in the cities has more to do with cultural ecosystems with many factors in play. In Copenhagen for example , using energy-saving dimmed lights seemed like a great idea until it was then realised that there was a conflict of interest with the Danish capital's safe cycling initiative. As a result a capability for traffic signals to 'talk' to the street lights , and the lights to go up if cyclists are picked up on sensors was added.

Smart lighting's benefits are clear, from remotely monitoring the conditions of roads and better managing traffic patterns of pedestrians at stadiums, parks, and busy intersections, to gunfire detection technology that can help law enforcement determine more information about when and where a shooting occurred.

Nonetheless , smart street lights have their critics. Some have complained that while they may use less electricity, LED bulbs pool less light, meaning the surrounding houses and front gardens are darker at night. Health authorities around the world have also warned against using high-intensity LEDs as they emit lots of blue light,
which they say can disrupt the sleeping patterns of both humans and animals. Another concern is cybersecurity, because many cities choose to store and share data in the cloud. Security researcher Denis Legezo, from Kaspersky, has already demonstrated that he was able to manipulate traffic sensors in Moscow by finding their manuals online.

People will always find a reason to hack a system - even if it's just for their own entertainment.

Smart lighting may not necessarily be a top priority for developers of smarter cities at present , but the issues they plan to address like data platforms, environment and citizen engagement etc could have many uses. The industry believes it still has a lot to offer -"The future of smart lighting will be a game changer in helping communities solve problems," says Mike Zeto, general manager of smart cities at AT&T, which has joined with several tech giants to form a US-based smart city collective.