doctors have taken of your particular ailment. So if you organizations and polled to IBM employees, asking ‘What
go back to that bad back example, if my doctor has this do you think would be important in the future?’ This is
technology they can bring up my avatar, click on my how we came up with the four topics.
spine and see prior diagnoses that doctors have made,
Given some of the recent issues that we’ve had with milk
prior tests, images, scans taken and they have a compre-
products from China, and contaminated spinach, if you
hensive collection of all the healthcare information about
guys remember that a few years ago, how do you actual-
me in one place.
ly manage knowing what you need to know about food?
How do you speed the traceability? How many lives could
we save or affect by being able to know about food in a
ADVANCES IN MOBILE TECHNOLOGY faster time frame? One of the things that we could do is
Janki Y. Vora
actually assign a digital passport to food.
IT specialist
This allows us to understand the history and the physical
IBM
aspects of the food itself. So it could have an RFID tag
Stats show that we have three
associated with it as a digital certifi cate (which is my area
times as many cell phones than
of concern), some nano device or some type of biosensor.
laptops and twice the number
With this technology, a customer can come into a store
of credit cards that we carry.
and understand, because of the digital certifi cate, where
It has become common to
a product came from, its history, what type of pesticides
use [cell phones] for social networking, as a navigation
were used on it and also its life span.
device, for checking emails, and loading/downloading
There are some neat things in the area of nano sensors,
music or videos.
where research is being done in how food decays. The
It’s already been done in Korea, China, and India. They
nano sensor, which is a special chemical or some type of
are already using cell phones for doing online purchase
nano material, can actually change color. So it gives you
and they have started using it as a credit card. So you
an indication and you can know that, ‘Hey, the food is
don’t have to carry a wallet, or a big purse with credit
changing, I need to go ahead and use it.’
cards. You can have them in your cell phone, if you have
There’s also some interesting work being done by some
the technology—it’s called near-fi eld communication.
Dutch researchers. They can take plain nano particles,
IBM is also involved with global initiatives in Africa, where
infuse it into plastics, and actually be able to preserve the
they have been doing phenomenal things with wireless
infusion of water and oxygen into the food. So you’re
innovation. There are several technologies they have
preventing moisture from entering the food and you’re
made available for farmers so they can know, in real time,
also preventing oxygen from entering the food.
about the hard work they are putting in and how their
You’ve heard in all four cases about the use of sensor
goods are being sold in the market. Other companies
technology. Whether or not we know it, being able to un-
like Motorola are also involved in various projects. There
derstand things in real time, getting fi ne-grain, detailed
is a health care program. HIV is a life threatening disease
information about products we use is a growing trend.
and with mobile phones doctors can keep track of their
remote patients. They don’t have access to good health
Whether we are using sensors to understand traffi c pat-
care, so it’s very important for life threatening diseases
terns and make decisions about routing, or using sensors
that patients take their medications on time and they do
on our bodies in order to send a signal to our doctor to
it through the Cell Project.
say, ‘Hey, something’s wrong’—and the guy can get a
3D image and understand thoroughly what the issue
is—or if we are using sensors in cell phones in order to
go through with a transaction or gain some information
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY FOR FOOD
from another party based on our location, sensors are a
Kelly Malone, PhD, growing trend.
Team Lead, Technology
So if you think of one unifying theme across all of this: It’s
Evaluation
the growing use of sensor technology. And we as a com-
Corporate Technology and
pany, we’re not singular here, understand that it’s going
Intellectual Property
to be very important, and here are some of the applica-
IBM
tions we think will be very important in the future.
These topics come from
questions posed to external
70 WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2009 www.womenofcolor.net
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