New technology and software


Going forward in today’s digital world


2014 looks set to bring sci-fi-style advances such as edgeless bendable displays with full pressure sensitivity. Joe Morris looks at the origins of digital innovations as well as examples of today’s waste related technology.


Joe Morris Freelance writer


N


ONE OF humanity’s great innovations have ever emerged in a vacuum. The recent centenary of the now little known Alfred Russell Wallace’s death was met with


little fanfare, yet he developed the theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin. Two centuries earlier, Isaac Newton told


the world that ‘If [he had] seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’. Revolutions depend on a perfect storm of fortunate circumstances as much as any individual genius. Take the father of modern physics’ own


more recent namesake, the Apple Newton. Remember it? Not many do. A revolutionary touchscreen tablet 10 years in development, it sank without trace shortly after its mid-90s release. Instead, another Californian upstart, Palm Computing, went on to dominate the fledgling market for the new breed of compact touchscreen devices that came to be known as personal digital assistants (PDAs). With mobile telephony beginning to hit


the mass market at the same time, some of the features of these PDAs began to be combined to create what we would nowadays recognise as ‘smartphones’, such as the Nokia 9000. Twenty years later and Palm no longer


exists, while Apple’s iPhone and iPad, spiritual descendants of the Newton, have helped it become one of the largest companies in the world, in turn spawning a dizzying array of imitators in all shapes and sizes, including the tongue-twisting ‘phoneblets’ (a word describing a new generation of smartphones that are larger than a phone but smaller than a tablet), and ‘phablets’ (a device designed to straddle the functionalities of a smartphone and a tablet). Despite all the ideas being in place at least


a decade before, it took advances in software, processing power, storage capacity and mobile bandwidth - not to mention adroit marketing - to all come together to set the scene for the iPhone to make its game-changing impact in 2007. 2014 looks set to bring more sci-fi –style advances, such as edgeless and even flexible, bendable displays with full pressure sensitivity.


Whitespace Work Software Phil Garvey, chief executive officer at Whitespace Work Software, is more aware than most of the burgeoning possibilities. From its headquarters nestled in the countryside just North of Guildford, Whitespace has been busy equipping local authorities and public sector contractors across the country with its flagship PowerSuite and AllOnMobile packages. With a quarter of a century in the business, the company has seen many lavishly-hyped


8 November 28 2013


technologies rise and fall into ignoble obsolescence over the years, but mobile smart devices are among history’s rare overachievers. With the natural human tendency to rapidly


adapt to any ‘new normal’, has the newfound ubiquity of these miniature miracle workers in our private lives led to elevated expectations from the technology used in the workplace? In Garvey’s experience at least this is now the case. “Many users now expect access to all sorts


of business data via hand held applications. Today, end-users are selecting suppliers based on what smart phone applications they provide,” explains Garvey. In the early days of the personal


computing revolution, small, relatively cheap multipurpose desktop PCs forced the rapid extinction of bespoke calculating machines of all kinds. Now, on the modern digital battlefield, formerly adequate specialist units are being vanquished by another march of the generalists, this time backed by the wallets of a billion global consumers. Garvey again: “In the world of waste


business applications, the traditional trend has been very much to use ruggedised handheld PDAs with custom written applications. Up until a year ago this was the platform of choice for a heavy-duty business application. Great examples are used every day by delivery drivers and parcel companies.” So if it wasn’t broken, why fix it? As so often these days, to borrow from the


1992 Clinton campaign: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. Garvey goes on: “A typical ruggedised PDA


with a camera and phone costs in the region of £1500. An iPhone unlocked can be purchased for around £600 including a ruggedised case. Android phones can be purchased even cheaper. Given these low entry costs it would seem that large scale deployments will not be hampered by capital device cost.


“In the climate of ‘more for less’ this would seem a good return on investment.”


Prodware Prodware, whose fully integrated enwis platform is seeing widespread use across the country’s waste management sector, have also been quick to adapt their product lines to this changing environment. Solutions specialist Jason Fazackerley tells RWW: “While our solution is founded on a Microsoft Dynamics platform, it can be delivered through smart- phones and iPads. This is a significant leap and changes how information workers operate. “That said, it is important that any portable


device is suited the environment where it operates. We have ensured that enwis can now be run on many platforms and through all categories of device, from iPads to rugged android tablets,” states Fazackerley. This raises an interesting question; if there


are so many of these high-powered devices out there already, is there need for any capital investment at all? Fazackerley suggests that attitudes are changing. “More and more, we are seeing our


customers move away from supplying their staff with a standard phone and standard laptop. Bring your own device (BYOD) is a concept that is being embraced by employers and employees. This is all made possible as we can deliver core system functionality through almost any device or platform,” Of course, there’s rarely such thing as a


completely free lunch, and piggybacking industrial-grade responsibilities on to employees’ own phones could have pitfalls, even if the owners can be persuaded to mix business with pleasure. While readily available ruggedised cases


can easily provide physical protection for the hardware, the integrity of the data itself is paramount for any business, especially those with involvement in the public sector. Luckily, with today’s mobile technology,


genuine information security is perfectly attainable - providing the will is there. Whitespace’s Garvey explains that it relies just as greatly on the enforcement of correct procedure as it does on any technological solutions: “From simply receiving emails to accessing confidential information on a smartphone the organisation’s security process needs to be understood, communicated and rigorously implemented.”


Many advantages await those who overcome these minor obstacles. By using self-owned smartphones,


mobile applications can be rolled out at a fraction of the cost.


What does this mean in practice? One of the most obvious synergies of workplace and private mobile communications is email. According to Garvey: “The tide of public sector opinion is changing. Staff want and


www. r e c y c l i n gwa s t ewo r l d . c o . u k Recycling & WA S T E W O R L D


now demand their work emails on their smartphone.” Job management and auctioning are also key ‘killer apps’, he adds. “Normally carried out by supervisors, these


tasks can be sent to a smartphone, approved or disapproved and allocated to a crew, all without coming back to the office. “For example, take a council report of


fly tipping coming through for approval to remove. The job is reported at a known site with a photo as evidence. “A common feature of all most smartphones


is to be able to log GPS co-ordinates a ‘Where am I?’ facility. By using this, any employee can log a job and take a picture with location co-ordinates built in. This can all be sent to the supervisor’s iPhone who can then approve the job for removal instead of having to wait until they are next in the office or communicating by telephone. “Multiply this simple approval application


across an environmental department and it’s easy to see that there are literally hundreds of applications for the technology,” says Garvey.


AMCS Not all tasks can be taken over by generalist devices, of course - advances in specialist technologies also look set to transform the waste management company of tomorrow, for example in ID chips. A spokesman for AMCS, whose products include the ELEMOS Suite, gives a taste of things to come. “One area that is potentially really exciting


is the use of ultra high frequency (UHF) RFID. “Traditional low frequency RFID as is


used on wheelie bins for example only has an operating range of a few inches making it ineffective for use on skips or roll on off containers. “The new HFC chips work at a range of five


to six metres providing a practical solution for larger containers. “The result is far better asset management


that is especially important when you consider a skip may be worth £2.5K. UHF RFID means customers can now know at all times where their containers are and how they are ‘working’.”


RWW


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