Heat Sensitive Street Lights

The one-third mile stretch of between a sports stadium and a university is just an experiment, says the Mayor, but if it goes well they plan on rolling them out across the entire town. The lamps now default to a new dim setting but if they sense body heat, they change to a brighter setting for ten seconds. As a result, the new lights are estimated to save about 50% of their energy costs.

They aren't the only ones experimenting with attacking street lights as a way to reduce energy consumption and light pollution -- earlier this year, the 9000-person German town of Dorentrup decided to turn all of its street lights off at 11pm but users can call specific lights by mobile phone to have them turned on for 15 minutes. Studies have shown that in most cases, lights are only turned on once or twice per night since the changeover.

I can't seem to find out exactly how the technology detects body heat or what happens in inclement weather, but it seems fascinating. If only we could get NYC to turn down some of its lights...