Foreign Secretary, David Miliband got to grips with smart sensor technology this week on a visit to IBM’s research centre at Hursley, near Winchester.
The Foreign Secretary took part in a roundtable discussion with representatives from locally based multi-national companies discussing the challenges businesses are facing and Government support in the current economic climate.
The message was that companies should continue to invest in research despite the economic climate.
“The current economic climate offers an opportunity to embed efficiencies into our current systems for the future. We now have the ability to make smarter decisions as it is possible to infuse intelligence into the systems and processes upon which the country literally works,” said John McLean, IBM Hursley Lab Director and v-p of WebSphere Connectivity.
During his tour, the Foreign Secretary was shown how numerous strands of retail innovation, from computerised ink, to smart sensors, and handheld information scanners can come together to create the shop of the future.
This included smart sensors designed into supermarket shelves that can give consumers information and provide the store with the ability to make real-time price changes.
Other research is looking ways of applying IT technologies such as web 2.0 and even twitter to vehicle tracking, which will allow users to retrieve transport information from any internet enabled device, such as a phone.