An Australian company will soon offer RFID sensors that will send alerts when wildfires crop up, ideally making data available far earlier that satellite or aerial imagery. The company, Telepathx, “expects the systems will cost about $1500.00 USD per kilometre depending on sensor saturation.”
The company claims:
Telepathx patent pending active RFID sensors are truly innovative in the way they can remotely detect and notify of excessive ambient, convected or radiated heat for extended periods, up to 10-12 years in 24-7 real time without the need of maintenance or management.
Is that a reasonable price?
by Adena Schutzberg on 10/23 at 07:31 AM |
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Dow Chemical’s CIO Dave Kepler is looking to RFID and GPS . He’s interviewed by BusinessWeek.
Among the tidbits: there’s no real labor saving, he hopes for return in 1.5 years, the company will be spending millions of dollars in the next several years…
by Adena Schutzberg on 10/09 at 08:10 AM |
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The Washington Post reports on the different proposal technology companies have made to the Department of Homeland Security to help secure the U.S. border with Mexico. Among them: drones, wireless towers, real time video pushing to hand held devices, blimps and from Raytheon real time data from sensors overlain on Google Earth. The contract is worth some $2 billion. And, there are concerns:
Even before it gets off the ground, the program has garnered heavy criticism from detractors who worry that the government does not know enough about what it is buying and that the program could amount to a costly give-away to the private sector. “It’s a little bit scary when the government throws up its hands and says, ‘We have no idea how to do this. Please tell us,’ ” said Deborah W. Meyers, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “It just seems like the government is putting policy in the hands of the contractors.”
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/18 at 08:09 AM |
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Military Information Technology has an editorial pushing for open source software for the military.
The article is set up by a vignette describing a new coalition sensor and how open source software allows it to be integrated into coalition network after “the command interface has been modified to import data from the new sensor.”
Open source software would make that possible. But, so would open standards. In fact, with open standards (open interfaces actually) implemented in the coalition network and the sensor, there’d be perhaps no need to modify the command interface at all. Oh, and those interfaces could be implemented in open source and proprietary code, should military leaders demand it.
Having spent six years now learning about interoperability standards in my work with OGC, I fear there’s still a lot of places they are not fully understood. Perhaps this was just an unfortunate choice for an example. It is however one chance to point out that open source is not the answer to every problem. Perhaps open source is becoming the hammer for every nail?
by Adena Schutzberg on 08/15 at 09:41 AM |
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The chip, at 2mm x 2mm x 1mm, will help phones and nav systems “know which way you are facing” and ideally orient the map accordingly. The chip is expected to run about $10 and be available in October.
- Yamaha Press Release
by Adena Schutzberg on 08/09 at 05:33 AM |
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