As wireless connectivity grows in popularity, organisations are working harder than ever to find ways of optimising their operations.

Now that the internet is well established and the much-hyped dot com ideas of the late 1990s have turned into some kind of reality, the next step is to connect the myriad physical devices that surround us to the network.

Radio frequency identity (RFID) tags are seen as a major step in this direction, and are starting to make inroads into retail supply chains, airport baggage handling and countless other industries.

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The next technology to play a part in achieving this optimisation could be sensor telemetry, a combination of sensors and two-way wireless communications that allows firms to gather detailed data from products, people and places.

Sensor telemetry is an important area of research at Accenture's technology labs in the south of France.

'RFID was on the road to the vision of what we call "reality online", and now sensor telemetry is the next step along the way,' said Martin Illsley, Accenture's director of research in Sophia Antipolis.

Just as RFID allows organisations to sense and detect physical assets, so sensor telemetry can give a live, detailed and continuously updated view about the status of those assets.

'With an RFID tag, objects would just send out alerts saying "I'm present", but that's all. When you use a sensor, not only can it say that it's present, but it can also tell you a range of other information, such as what temperature it is,' said Illsley.

By linking that live data to a backend system that can analyse it and identify exceptions against a set of established parameters, firms can build a network of assets that effectively monitors itself.

Vehicles can notify controllers when they need to be repaired, containers send out alerts when they're overheating, and vineyards can let farmers know when they need more water (see below).

In a trial conducted by BP, a battery of sensors installed on cargo trains not only automatically sense how much cargo is loaded on the carriage, but also continuously broadcast live temperature and positioning details back to the firm.

A web-based software application aggregates all this data, giving staff a live view of the 21 railcars in the trial: when and where they were loaded; where the train has travelled and where it is; and the temperatures to which the cargo has been subjected.

Illsley believes that the combination of rapidly shrinking component size and falling costs will drive continued and more widespread uptake of the technology.

'We have tags and sensors now that are smarter, much smaller and getting smaller by the day and they're much cheaper. Communications are becoming cheaper and more ubiquitous, and the interface is becoming easier to use and more effective,' he said.

One of the most recent trials of the technology involved installing sensors in buses across St Louis in the US.

The local public transportation organisation, Metro St Louis, has a pilot project under way that combines sensors and statistical analysis to proactively predict when vehicles require maintenance.

Launched in January, the Metro pilot involves sensors being installed in 20 buses to monitor engine and transmission information.

Data is stored on the vehicle and uploaded to a central server at the end of every shift. Systems in Accenture's technology labs compare actual operational data from the buses with an analytic model of how the vehicle is expected to run.

Any exceptions are automatically identified by the system, alerting Metro staff via pager or email, which allows them to decide whether or not to bring the vehicle in for repairs prior to a breakdown.

'We're very excited about the long-term benefits we could realise with predictive monitoring,' said Metro St Louis director of IT operations systems Tom Dutton.

The company will decide whether or not to initiate a full rollout to its fleet of more than 400 buses later in the next few weeks.

Pickberry Vineyards sense it on the grapevine
Californian vineyard Pickberry announced a project last year to use sensor telemetry to monitor a range of environmental data across its 30 acres of crops (Computing, 27 May 2004).

The company's motivation is simple: better grapes make better wine, which can in turn be sold for higher prices.

'By careful monitoring of vineyard conditions, the sensor network provides the ability to improve wine grape quality,' said Lorna Strotz, a co-owner of Pickberry Vineyards.

'In today's competitive market, improved technology can significantly enhance vineyard profitability.'

Working with Accenture, the vineyard bundled 30 different sensors in special packaging - aimed at keeping out both adverse weather and curious rodents - and installed them throughout the field.

Data is communicated across a wireless mesh network to a server that analyses soil moisture, temperature and humidity.

One year on, all of this is giving staff on the farm detailed information about where and when to water for optimum effect, as well as acting as an effective early warning system for environment issues such as frost.