Smart Palms on Dubai beaches: fast connections, fast charging

Smart Palms on Dubai beaches: fast connections, fast charging

Dubai is known for its aggressive embrace of design and engineering feats to boost investment and tourism, and it is getting "smarter." Dubai has been putting in place its Smart Palm, to provide, for free, Wi-Fi (the connection delivers high-speed Internet access), charging station and weather information for people on the beach.

According to reports,103 Smart Palms will be installed this year on a number of beaches and the plan is to have them available on all public beaches in Dubai. The Dubai Municipality Director-General Hussain Lootah said the project would cover all public beaches in Dubai by the end of this year, according to Gulf News.

"Sitting on the beach under the shade of a while connected to the Internet with your personal device is no longer a fantasy," reported Emirates247.com, an online site in the United Arab Emirates. Smart Palm is described by the site as an electronic palm tree that offers beachgoers Wi-Fi and other smart services. They get access to a connection, charging station, and touchscreens which display information about the beach they are visiting in particular, and Dubai in general.

Types of information they may view include the weather, sea conditions, transportation and amenities in Dubai, via the screens and speakers,

Gulf News had further details: Each station, standing six meters tall is in the shape of a date palm tree. It can support 50 users at a time. It has eight phone recharging points, multimedia screens and a public announcement system. Each "tree" is linked to a central control center and monitored around the clock.

The Smart Palm site said that each Smart Palm is equipped with a 360 degrees infrared CCTV camera and an Emergency button.

Inhabitat quoted Lootah, who said, "these structures are entirely self-sufficient thanks to their mono crystal solar panels, which provide up to 21 per cent efficiency."

How it works: Matrices of photovoltaic modules power up Smart Palm, and they were made to fit the shape of its leaves. With efficiency of more than 21 percent, they were designed so that they can provide complete power autonomy for each Smart Palm.

The initiative took varied smartphone needs into consideration. According to Emirates247.com, "Every Palm has eight mobile phone chargers for different modern types and is fitted with comfortable private seating and tables that make it easier for everyone to deal with the modern technology quietly."

Smart Palms on Dubai beaches: fast connections, fast charging

The Smart Palm site said that the "Seating area is available next to each Palm for resting and relaxation during the battery charging process, as well as for comfortable internet browsing via the complimentary Wi-Fi access."

Add another layer of pampering: "Our Smart Palm Recharge stations are capable of charging all batteries 2.5 times faster than the regular charging speed."

What's in it for Dubai? If visitors can recall their stay in Dubai as one where they got fast internet access on numerous Smart Palm points, then that experience cannot harm Dubai's push for worldwide recognition, giving Dubai one more reason to pride itself as a modern hub with a handle on the Internet of Everything. "Dubai has announced a Smart City initiative that will leverage the Internet of Everything to become one of the World's most connected and sustainable cities with the Expo as the platform for unveiling this vision," said the Smart Palm site.

More information: smart-palm.com/

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