Sow monitoring is a very interesting application area for sensor networks. Consider sows wearing sensor nodes incorporating movement detectors as well as a micro-controller and a radio. A farmer could have wireless contact with the sensor nodes and thus track the sows roaming freely in their assigned pen. Software running on the sensor nodes could also alert the farmer in case a sow is entering its heat period (there is a correlation between the movement of the sows and its heat period). Today, sows wear tags but farmers need physical contacts with those tags to identify the animal; in addition, farmers are on their own to monitor heat. The Danish Committee for Pig Production has recognized the potential of sensor networks for sow monitoring.

More info here.

Those annoying and often ignored car alarms could be a thing of the past if researchers developing an anti-theft sensor network have their way.

According to scientists at Penn State, the anti-theft car network would require a sensor (or multiple tiny slave sensors) in each auto that would then register it to a local master sensor. In a parking lot the cars would form a great big secure network.

Right now the sensors we are testing are about the size of a dollar coin according to Sencun Zhu, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Penn State. “We will eventually make them only about a cubic millimeter, small enough to embed in a parking sticker and very inexpensive to manufacture.” A cubic millimeter is about the size of an ice cream sprinkle, researchers noted.

More info here.

Joe Polastre (Sentilla CTO) have been running around the world over the last few weeks, with two trips to Europe and some other trips around the US. He gave a number of invited talks, have spent time talking with visionaries and leaders like John Gage, and have constantly been revising the presentation to address all of the great questions that I’ve received. The presentation’s focus on the impact pervasive computing will have on our society, how Sentilla’s platform is leading this next generation of computing, what’s in the platform, and how did Sentilla make it all fit inside a tiny embedded computer that has never been done before. He have also had a number of interactions with people working on some very cool projects — including projects that I’m allowed to talk about publicly (those are always the most fun for me).

More info here.