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IBM provides Human Centric solutions for solar-powered unmanned car journey from Italy to China
[July 27, 2010]

IBM provides Human Centric solutions for solar-powered unmanned car journey from Italy to China


(EquityBites Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Information technology company IBM (NYSE:IBM) on Monday said that its Human Centric solutions will be used by the automated vehicles during the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge (VIAC), an epic 13,000km journey from Parma, Italy to Shanghai, China using an unmanned, solar energy powered vehicle.



The VIAC, which aims to showcase the benefits of green transport, will use IBM's Human Centric solutions to collect data on CO2 pollutants in the regions covered along the way, including Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and China. The data will be used to assess the health and environmental impact of CO2 in these areas.

During the course of the drive, IBM Human Centric Solutions will illustrate the data collecting potential of Smartphones. VIAC vehicles will be equipped with specially-designed Smartphones that monitor CO2 levels, providing a live stream of data to the web via twitter, @greenhaviour, throughout the journey.


IBM analytical tools will be used to discover trends such as a correlation between certain illnesses and the quality of the air.

This initiative is expected to demonstrate the value derived from the network of sensors embedded in devices, such as smart phones which are already in place.

The technology used in this initiative has been developed by IBM with the hardware support of SenSaris for the CO2 Bluetooth sensors. It is based on IBM Message Broker, WebSphere Application Server software and Tivoli Storage Manager and runs on the Android 2.1 mobile platform.

The project ends on 20 October 2010, following the arrival of the vans at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Once the pilot is completed, IBM will use the project results to evaluate the solution for further applications.

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