This July, Chicago will be rolling out sophisticated sensors housed in curled metal fixtures for its Michigan Avenue lamp posts that will be able to better respond to environmental issues and lessen foot traffic in pedestrian areas.

Dubbed the Array of Things project, the lamp post sensors will measure air quality, light intensity, sound volume, heat, precipitation and wind. And, somewhat controversially, they’ll also monitor mobile phone traffic to count the number of people passing by.

Other cities have collected Big Data before, but this initiative could be the first time a permanent infrastructure has been introduced across an entire city. If trials in July go well, hundreds of new lamp posts will make their way into the city’s neighbourhoods.

And whilst there may be privacy concerns, Chicago’s citizens at least know what the system is for. Quantified self technology has become more and more sophisticated – it was only a matter of time before sensors like this are used to inform the way cities are better built and developed.