Thursday, July 29, 2010

IBM to develop infrastructure-monitoring software

IBM will develop technology to monitor and analyze the state of buildings, roads, water lines and other urban infrastructure in a new laboratory it is opening with Carnegie Mellon University.

The IBM Smarter Infrastructure Lab will focus on two areas of research, said Wayne Balta, an IBM vice president in charge of corporate environmental affairs and product safety. The lab will develop sensors that can provide more data on the state of infrastructure. It will also create software and system processes that can analyze the data in ways that would allow public utilities, cities and municipalities to manage their infrastructures more efficiently.

Water and sewage pipelines, electric grids, buildings, road ways and other forms of infrastructure would all benefit from greater computer analysis, Balta said. For instance, sensors could pinpoint a water leak that a city could quickly repair.

IBM hopes that the technologies and expertise that emerge from the lab will help the company implement more smart infrastructure-based systems, Balta said.

-PC World

For the full story: http://www.pcworld.com

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