*The thing that's endearing about IBM is their deployment of real money. Like, megatons of money. Plus swarms of real-world machinery and thousands of actual engineers.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ibm_internet_of_things.php
(...)
"I recently spoke to Andy Stanford-Clark, a Master Inventor and Distinguished Engineer at IBM. Yesterday we wrote about how Stanford-Clark has hooked his house up to Twitter. Today we delve more into what his employer, IBM, is doing with the Internet of Things.
"IBM is involved in some very interesting projects at the intersection of two big trends we've been tracking in 2009: The Real-time Web and Internet of Things. They have a website devoted to this topic, called A Smarter Planet. As the name implies, it focuses on environmental matters such as energy and food systems. Sensors, RFID tags and real-time messaging software are major parts of IBM's smarter planet strategy.
(((I like the idea of a multinational corporation with a "smarter planet strategy." Decent of them to realize they don't get an extra planet after dominating one of them.)))
"The catchcry for the site - Instrumented, Interconnected, and Intelligent - is about outfitting the world with sensors and hooking them to the Internet to apply the 'smarts.'
"IBM has a whole set of RFID and sensor technology solutions. But more importantly it has been busy working with various manufacturers and goods suppliers in recent months, to introduce those solutions to the world.
"This month IBM made an agreement with Matiq, an IT subsidiary of Norway's largest food supplier Nortura. The project involves using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to track and trace poultry and meat products "from the farm, through the supply chain, to supermarket shelves." This food tracking solution will help ensure that meat and chicken are "kept in optimal condition throughout the supply chain." The system uses IBM's WebSphere RFID Information Center, together with IBM's sensor and actuator solutions.
"A similar project is one that IBM announced at the end of June with Danish transportation company Container Centralen. By February 2010, Container Centralen undertakes to use IBM sensor technology "to allow participants in the horticultural supply chain to track the progress of shipments as they move from growers to wholesalers and retailers across 40 countries in Europe."
"Specifically this refers to transportation of things like flowers and pot plants, (((no, no, not actual "pot plants," that's more of a Californian cottage-industry thing))) which are very sensitive to the environment they travel in. Having sensors as part of the entire travel chain will allow participants to monitor conditions and climate during travel. Essentially it makes the travel process very transparent... (((etc etc etc)))
