San Franciscans are in the dark about the city's plans for
surveillance streetlights In the Netherlands city of Eindhoven,
the streetlights lining a central commercial strip will glow red
if a storm is coming. It's a subtle cue that harkens back to an
old phrase about a red sky warning mariners that bad weather is
on the way. The automated color change is possible because
satellite weather data flows over a network to tiny processors
installed inside the lampposts, which are linked by an
integrated wireless system. Lighting hues reflecting atmospheric
changes are only the beginning of myriad functions these so-
called "smart streetlights" can perform. Each light has
something akin to a smartphone embedded inside of it, and the
interconnected network of lights can be controlled by a central
command center. Since they have built-in flexibility for
multiple adaptations, the systems can be programmed to serve a
wide variety of purposes. Aside from merely illuminating public
space, possible uses could include stree