The reports presented by consulting firms show that annual energy costs generated by 340 million streetlights are expected to reach $23.9 to $42.5 billion by 2025. Those numbers reveal a motivation behind the research aiming at optimizing outdoor lighting energy efficiency. They show that even a small unit improvement can yield large benefits due to the effect of scale. The development of solid...

Nearly two billion people worldwide have no reliable access to electricity, a vital part of the path to development. Micro wind power is one promising solution. Micro wind installations offer environmental sustainability, low capital costs, and excellent adaptability to diverse environmental and cultural situations. Yet, electrification projects in the developing world, including small-scale wi...

With the increasing awareness of energy efficiency, many old buildings have to undergo a massive facade energy retrofit. How to predict the visual impact which solar installations on the aesthetic cultural value of these buildings has been a heated debate in Switzerland (and throughout the world). The usual evaluation method to describe the visual impact of BIPV is based on semantic and qualita...

This study evaluates the operational activities on an Air Force base and how they can be improved through integration of new technologies, organization of infrastructure/installations, and applied process improvement leading to a decrease in operational costs and manpower. This effort, called Sierra Bravo, was tasked to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by the United States Air ...

Violence among spectators at sports events has become a serious problem, not only for its evident impact on safety, but also from the perspective of environmental, cultural, economic and social sustainability. Although it could be considered a purely social problem, some solutions could come from a smart and efficient design and management of the lighting installations. Thus, the management of ...

Our objective was to investigate whether there might be excess cancer mortality in the vicinity of Spanish installations for the production of cement, lime, plaster, and magnesium oxide, according to different categories of industrial activity. An ecologic study was designed to examine municipal mortality due to 33 types of cancer (period 1997-2006) in Spain. Population exposure to pollution wa...

In mixed reality installations we have to integrate a variety of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, animated virtual agents and robotic agents. In this paper we describe some of our explorations with a game engine as the driving software for mixed reality installations.