GE’s Cheif Marketing Officer Beth Comstock wrote a great article about energy innovation and the Olympics. For example, sponsor EDF Energy modeled smart monitoring of power usage during the Games, allowing anyone to track power usage at different venues, in real-time, on dashboards available online. Athletes were able to track and reduce their energy use.  By becoming more aware of our energy footprint, we tend to behave better (think about the roadway signs that show you your actual speed, don’t you usually slow down?).

Regarding lighting, the LED seemed everywhere. The Tower Bridge shown below debuted its energy efficient, 18,000 LED lighting system. It’s beautiful, innovative and practical.

Below are a few more cool items Beth uncovered:

• EyeStop: the next generation of smart urban furniture. Combining sensors, interactive services and touchscreens, the bus stop of the future will give riders real time updates, community information and entertainment, while also allowing them to contribute updates and knowledge.

• The Copenhagen Wheel: in addition to turning any bicycle into a hybrid e-bike powered by saved energy that is dissipated while cycling and braking, the Copenhagen Wheel also maps pollution levels and traffic conditions in real time and shares that info with other users.

• Flyfire: the public art of the future will not be boring. Flyfire’s goal is to turn ordinary spaces into immersive and interactive display environments. In its first application, a large number of “self-organizing micro helicopters” containing LEDs acted as smart pixels, forming elastic display surfaces anywhere.