Wireless sensor networks grabbing greater attention

ROSEMONT, ILL. - Amid the venture capitalists, engineering wizards and marketing gurus at last week's Wireless Sensing Solutions conference were two employees from a large insurance company on a mission to learn about the event's namesake technology.

Ted Dorner, data center manager for one of the company's offices., and Mark Clauss, an accounts payable superintendent at its headquarters, both serve on a task group that weighs the possible effect of emerging technologies on the company and its customers.

They said the possibilities of wireless sensor networks - meshes of tiny monitoring and measurement devices with battery-powered radios - are intriguing.

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ROSEMONT, ILL. - Amid the venture capitalists, engineering wizards and marketing gurus at last week's Wireless Sensing Solutions conference were two employees from a large insurance company on a mission to learn about the event's namesake technology.

Ted Dorner, data center manager for one of the company's offices., and Mark Clauss, an accounts payable superintendent at its headquarters, both serve on a task group that weighs the possible effect of emerging technologies on the company and its customers.

They said the possibilities of wireless sensor networks - meshes of tiny monitoring and measurement devices with battery-powered radios - are intriguing.

"Costs are always an issue for an insurance company," Clauss said. "Are there ways we can reduce the number of losses or the dollar amount of those losses" by using wireless sensors?

Imagine using sensors to detect the building up of creosote in a chimney before a fire could be ignited or the falling temperature of a water pipe before it burst, Clauss said.

Clauss cautioned that there would be plenty of privacy, standards and other issues to think about before getting to that point.

Dorner agreed: "We're just doing pure research right now."

Plenty to choose from

There's plenty to do research on these days when it comes to wireless sensor networks, as was evidenced at the show. New products, many from start-ups such as Cirronet, Crossbow Technology and Dust Networks are plentiful.

A growing number of products are based on an emerging specification from the 100-member strong ZigBee Alliance. Several vendors now offer "ZigBee-ready" radio chipsets and protocol stacks.

Another forum that is expected to support wireless sensor networks is in the works as well. Boston University last week announced the planned Nov. 12 launch of the Sensor Network Consortium, a partnership of universities and vendors pledged to sponsor research and development and facilitate the growth of the sensor network industry. Founding members include L-3 Communications, Sensicast, United Technologies and Honeywell International, whose CTO for the automation and control solutions group was the keynote speaker at last week's conference.

Honeywell, like other process and industrial controls companies, is recasting product lines with wireless technologies. "We can't think of any segment of the industry that isn't going to be impacted by this," said CTO Dan Shiflin.

But users at the conference were keenly aware that wireless sensor technology is a means to an end.

"You don't ask people: 'How would you use ZigBee?' Because they don't know," said Ken Douglas, recently named BP International's first director of technology and sensory networks, in the oil company's chief technology office. "But if you ask them: 'How would you use information that you can now access for the first time?' They have to think about it for a bit, but then the ideas just starting pouring out."