Bluetooth beefs up networked cows

A Danish firm has created a Bluetooth network that monitors the well-being of cows, and automatically reports early warnings of illness to the farmer.

The creator of the "revolutionary" BlipNet network, Blip Systems, developed the technology in partnership with the Danish Cattle Research Centre and the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences.

A trend in the agricultural industry has seen increases in the size of herds, as well as the number of cattle per farm employee, making it more difficult to monitor the animals, according to Blip Systems.

"Farmers now have the ability to monitor the health of livestock automatically via a revolutionary Bluetooth network," the company claimed.

The Bluetooth wireless technology can be used to position objects or subjects as well as to transfer data wirelessly from various sensors.

BlipNet uses Bluetooth to gather data from mobile sensors placed on cattle and combines this information with position data. The data is used for automated identification of diseases and heat in the cattle, based on changes in movement patterns and physiological data.

The system is based on BlipNet 3.0. which Blip Systems claims is the world's first Bluetooth-based meshed network.

"The project is unique, as it is the first of its kind, where information regarding significant behavioural activities is used for automated identification of diseases," said Blip Systems.