A new 'smart bench' has arrived in Zagreb. The Steora solar smart bench is a technology hot-spot, which offers wifi, phone charging sockets as well as displaying local information and advertising. It's also equipped with air sensors and can gather data.
Ivan Mrvoš, a 20-year-old Croatian inventor, developed the bench. Other Croatian towns already have their own smart benches - among them Split, Primošten and Poreč. The international market is all over the benches, too, and they've already been installed in Montenegro, Sarajevo, Hong Kong, and Strasbourg.
You'll find the bench at the University of Zagreb, opposite the Croatian National Theatre. It was funded by the Women's Lions Club Zrinjevac, as a gift to the students. “The idea of the donation is just one of many that the Lions Club International have as part of its programme celebrating 100 years of the Lions Club. Funds for the donation were raised at the charity concert ‘La Primavera’, which was held in April this year at the Academy of Music, where soprano Antonella Malis performed,” said Women's Lions Club.
With the first bench bound to be a success with students and passers-by alike, another one is already on the cards for the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb.