Malls and municipalities find LEDs can be used for more than just lighting

Among the many promises of the Internet of Things — a network of Wi-Fi-connected devices and equipment managed with smartphones — is the automation of everyday life, whether finding a parking space or discovering a discounted blouse at the mall or lighting the streets when day shifts to dusk. Using a combination of LEDs and big data technology, public lighting is the potential backbone of a system that could use billions of fixtures to collect data about traffic congestion at an intersection or a consumer walking down the cereal aisle, to name just a couple of applications.