| Date | November 2017 | Marks available | 4 | Reference code | 17N.2.HL.TZ0.14 |
| Level | HL | Paper | 2 | Time zone | no time zone |
| Command term | Discuss | Question number | 14 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Smart technologies can be used to illuminate the night. Street light intensity and coverage can both be controlled, depending on physical parameters, such as the time of the day, or weather conditions.
The amount of pedestrians in the street or their activities could be further parameters used by algorithms for these type of applications.
Discuss the technologies that ambient intelligence uses in this specific scenario.
With a focus on privacy, discuss how traffic data from WiFi communication through smartphones can be used in this scenario.
Markscheme
Award up to [4 max].
Sensors;
Used to receive input for a physical parameter, such as daylight;
Transceivers/microcontrollers;
Directly on the lamppost, to be controlled remotely;
Wireless network/remote control antenna/RFID;
Position in each lamp along a street (or just the first), to communicate with both the central service centre (or all neighbouring lamps having a RF and communicate pairwise);
Internet/servers;
To connect the monitoring centre to the lamps;
Note: Do not accept: LED light and permanent supply of power, as they are not directly related to CS/IT.
Award marks as follows up to [4 max].
Award up to [2 max] for describing how the smartphones/WiFi could be used for street illumination.
Award up to [2 max] for a discussion on privacy/monitoring based on the data/algorithms used.
For example
How smartphones/WiFi is used in the scenario
Hot-spot traffic may provide an indication of how large the crowd moving in the street/zone is;
Hopping from one connection to another may provide an indication of how and where the crowd may move;
Therefore, this data may contribute to optimize the algorithm, which in turn could impact on the cost of public illumination, so it is an advantage for the collectivity;
Discussion on privacy/monitoring
Data on hotspots are provided by telecom companies;
These data should already be the result of some analysis and be stripped of any private (personal) information;
However, the company that controls the illumination would still have information on where the crowd is (in addition to the telecom) and this poses an issue of crowd monitoring;
Worse, hotspots integrated directly on lampposts would provide a very fine-grained anchoring net, and presence/movement of individuals rather than crowds could be monitored (not their private information, necessarily);
In both cases, private data shall not be made available and authorities and protocols should be used to guarantee which level of service these ubiquitous solutions provide;
Governments may obtain this information to track the whereabouts of individuals;
