By Calvin Azuri, TMCnet Contributor
A new software development kit designed to help companies and governments harness digital devices and sensors in order to build intelligent products and systems has been announced by IBM (News – Alert) at the 2010 Sensors Expo & Conference. With an aim of global adoption of wireless sensor networks by making them easier to program and use, the software is available for free download.
The new software development kit, Mote Runner, will provide an open and programmer-friendly platform to connect sensor and actuator motes within a wireless sensor network or WSN. Sensory information, such as temperature, movement, or light is gathered by Motes or wireless sensor nodes and then communicated across a network of wireless sensors. With the rich wireless sensor networks and analytics, companies and governments can enhance understanding of the internal and external systems that support and impact their businesses. By applying analytics to data captured from sensors, companies and governments can make better, more informed decisions in real-time. The ability of companies, governments and universities to take advantage of wireless sensor networks is limited as many wireless sensor networks used to monitor and react to physical or environmental conditions are proprietary and difficult to program. These challenges are addressed by Mote Runner. As an example, a building management company can use Mote Runner to deploy sensors throughout a high rise building. With Mote Runner, the company can develop applications for the sensors. Simulation of the position of the sensors throughout the building and communication testing is possible. Remote reprogram of sensors after they have been placed throughout the building is also possible. In a release, Charles Lickel, vice president of IBM software research said, “Sensors play an important role in interconnected systems and are critical to helping business leaders understand both what is happening in a system, and what will happen next. IBM is focused on empowering our clients to use sensors to instantly monitor constantly changing dynamics and apply analytics to understand and act upon these dynamics.” Lickel added the core to creating smarter systems is helping clients to easily program and use sensor networks. The client’s ability to drive new intelligence into their businesses will be advanced by these new developer tools.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
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