Paris partners with Nodle to track public furniture and urban structures to reduce theft
Nodle.io, an Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity network provider, is partnering with the City of Paris, France to deploy 3,000 Bluetooth-enabled benches and other urban installations in new Métro stations and parks.
Nodle was brought into the fold by French manufacturer Groupe Saint Léonard to design and create the new smart benches and public infrastructure throughout 68 new metro stations within the city. The installations use Bluetooth Low Energy to transmit real-time data to city officials about bench locations and possible migration between parks over time.
The historic Parisian bench was first introduced in 1850, and have long since served as an integral part of Parisian life and culture. Today, in 2019, Nodle and Groupe Saint Léonard are building upon the iconic design with data-transmitting beacons that will effectively assist city managers in tracking these historic assets.
Nodle CEO and co-founder Micha Benoliel said: “As the world’s largest IoT network we knew that our technology had the potential to serve beyond consumer electronics and assist with asset tracking for smart cities. When working with a city such as Paris, the goal is to take the charm and mystique that makes the city so endearing, and bring it into the 21st century.”
Nodle’s new citizen network allows for both consumers and city officials to interact with the city’s new Bluetooth-enabled urban furniture and structural installations by using the City of Paris’ mobile app. City officials are able to interact with the benches by analysing real time data such as location and frequency of use to detect peak times in central locations and make adjustments to city design accordingly. The Nodle Bluetooth-powered network also works underground in the Métro and cuts down hardware and operating costs compared to alternative solutions such as Sigfox or Cellular.
Bertrand Malet, who is leading the deployment for Groupe Saint Leonards, said: “Nodle provides the network and capability we could never attain from solutions from other companies in the space. We required a solution that was low power, low cost, and robust enough to last 10 years and Nodle does just that.”
Nodle provides internet connectivity to IoT devices by crowdsourcing a network of smartphones. Currently, close to 5 million devices are connecting to the Nodle Citizen Network every day. This is the world’s largest dedicated IoT network ever deployed to date, by number of base stations. Nodle works with application developers, consumer electronics manufacturers and telcos to use mobile phones as a decentralised infrastructure that can support connections to hundreds of millions of IoT devices per day.
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