The technology behind this is based on nano-sensing research done by HP Labs. The sensors are similar to RFID chips, but, in this case, they are tiny accelerometers which detect motion and vibrations.

HP aims to “dramatically improve the state-of-the-art in the cost, size, power efficiency, accuracy, and sensitivity of embedded sensors and actuators,” according to its web site for the project.

“We’re surrounded by technological assets that are deaf, blind, can’t taste, can’t smell and can’t feel,” says Stan Williams, an HP senior fellow.

“CeNSE is all about giving all this compute power the awareness of what’s going on in the environment around it,” adds Peter Hartwell, senior researcher and project team lead.

Hartwell envisions sensing nodes, about the size of a pushpin, stuck to bridges and buildings to warn of structural strains or weather conditions. They might be scattered along roadsides to monitor traffic, weather and road conditions. Embedded in everyday electronics, CeNSE nodes might track hospital equipment, sniff out pesticides and pathogens in food, or even “recognize” the person using them and adapt.

Monitoring a bridge like the San Francisco Golden Gate might take 10,000 nodes, says Hartwell. Figure a million or so for a big business application, such as cargo shipping. To enervate the Earth, about a trillion should do the trick. At that rate, sensor nodes must cost next to nothing, yet measure everything.

Of course, these sensors have to be wireless connected to communicate that information – and determining how often they do that, how to make sense of all that data, and how much of it to actually store and when are almost as important as the new technology itself would be.

It seems like that ought to make some form of RFID quite affordable for basic supply chain applications.

FedEx has joined the IoT bandwagon as well with a new offering called SenseAware, which lets shippers track package conditions in real-time.

Initially targeted at life sciences companies for which temperature and other factors during transit are critical for product safety and shelf life, the FedEx system allows customers to know, for example, if a package has been opened or exposed to light, its exact location in the transportation process, and whether it has become too warm or too cold.

The service uses a re-usable RFID tag that contains a number of different types of sensors. Data from the tag and sensors is collected by FedEx during the transport process, and delivered to users in a web application. Businesses can set up triggers, alerts and notices, such as using geo-sensors to alert themselves or others when a package arrives at a destination.

FedEx says it has been running trials of the service with several dozen companies, and expects it to become fully available in 2010.

The readwriteweb.com web site quotes Mark Hamm, head of innovation for FedEx, as saying this type of technology will start to be "mainstreaming over time as people become used to interacting with shipments."

IBM and many other companies are aggressively developing similar types of systems and infrastructure.

We’re not yet completely sure where the Internet of Things and the supply chain are going to intersect, but as the FedEx application and HP’s thinking shows, its likely to be soon and profound – though concerns about privacy and “government control” must also be dealt with.

How close are we getting to the Internet of Things vision? What will be the impact on supply chains? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.

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