International courier giant Fedex has just released a new tracking device and web service for packages. Called SenseAware, it keeps tabs on the temperature, location and other vital signs of a package – including when it’s opened and whether it was tampered with along the way. Fedex is running a trial period of about a year with 50 health care and life science companies, for tracking delivery of surgery kits, medical equipment – and even live organs.

We spoke with FedEx head of innovation, Mark Hamm, about SenseAware and how Fedex is tapping into the emerging trend called Internet of Things.

Sponsor

We’ve covered Internet of Things extensively on ReadWriteWeb over the past year. It’s when everyday objects become connected to the Internet, usually via RFID tags and/or sensors. In the case of Fedex’s SenseAware, it is powered by multiple sensors including light, motion, temperature.

Fedex’s Mark Hamm described the SenseAware device as a "quad-band world phone." As well as the device, there is a browser-based collaboration platform allowing businesses to actively track the progress of a package. Users can set up triggers, alerts and notices – for example using geo sensors to alert others when a package arrives at a destination. Users can set these triggers and decide who they go to. Essentially, the SenseAware events trigger business processes for the users.

For the web service, businesses pay a single monthly fee of $120 – for that they get the devices and the browser-based web service. Hamm noted that Fedex worked with the FAA to get permission to use the product on their freight planes; the only such device to have permission from the FAA, he told us. Fedex assembled components for SenseAware from a collection of partners, using Fedex’s design specifications.

Real-Time Decisions Based on Sensor Data

Hamm said that SenseAware will enable companies to make real-time decisions much more easily. For example is a perishable goods package sets off on a 2 day journey, but the sensor data shows that the shelf life suddenly decreases – then the package can be instantly diverted to another location, where the product can still be used rather than becoming useless if it sticks to original delivery schedule.

The initial trial period targets life science and medical companies (for example biotech firms), where things like security and knowing the vital signs of a package are very important. Also Hamm highlighted that these companies can collaborate on the sensor data, with precise data and records of delivery.

The trial with the life sciences companies is designed to help Fedex make the "last 20%" of the product more efficient. After about a year of this trial, Fedex will then launch the product globally, as a generally available platform. Hamm expects it will be used by any company or organization dealing with perishable goods, high value goods – such as jewelery, dangerous goods, expensive equipment, and goods that are high value because they’re unique (art work, music tapes, etc.).

Hamm told us that he expects this type of sensor product to be "mainstreaming over time as people become used to interacting with shipments."

Discuss

Google Wave, the company’s new real-time collaboration platform currently in private beta, is more secure than traditional email, claims the company. According to Greg D’alesandre, Google Wave product manager, that’s because Google has focused on addressing privacy and security issues as the product was built from the ground up instead of waiting to deal with them later. Speaking to media in Sydney today, he detailed several of Wave’s security features which are meant to stop criminals from exploiting the new technology and harming Wave users.

Sponsor

Built In Features to Prevent Spoofing

As reported by Australian news outlet ITNews, Wave has multiple levels of security which are designed to prevent email spoofing. Spoofing, meaning when you receive an email that claims to be from either a person or company you know but is actually from someone else – a hacker in most cases.

D’alesandre says the Wave protocol is more secure because it includes something he jokingly refers to as “crypto fairy dust.” That’s obviously meant to be a simple and fun way to explain the security complexities built into Wave which involve detailed authentication mechanisms to keep users safe from malicious attacks. In Wave, every bit of info you receive from another Wave user has already been authenticated as to its origin so you can be assured that they are who they say they are.

“You know you are getting the Wave from the person that is sending it to you and it has not changed mid-stream. This is a very big problem in current communication technologies – data can be changed mid stream and you will never know," said D’alesandre.

HTTPS Enabled by Default

For an additional layer of security, all Wave traffic is by default encrypted via HTTPS, a protocol for secure communications. That represents a big change in Google’s standard policy regarding use of this protocol. It wasn’t until July of 2008 that Gmail users were even given the option to encrypt messages using SSL and to enable it, you had to go into your settings and make a change – something that most mainstream users would never have bothered with. By the end of 2008, Google was only offering SSL as a feature in its other Google Apps programs if users were on either the Premier or Education editions. That meant that for non-paying consumer users, Google Docs, Calendar, and other online offerings were only available via unencrypted HTTP sessions.

Today, little has changed. Still, only users of Premier and Education Editions have access to SSL and it’s not switched on by default. The protocol is now available for Gmail, Chat, Calendar, Docs, and Sites but not the Start page, Google Video, or the Google Talk desktop client. Consumers using free Google apps like Docs still don’t have SSL unless they type it in the address bar manually.

D’alesandre admitted that switching on encryption in Wave slows down the service a little (which probably explains the company’s hesitance to switch it on in other products, too), but they ultimately decided that the security it provides was worth it.

Whitelisting Kills the Noise

A third security feature of sorts coming to Wave in the future is the ability to do “whitelisting.” Wave users will be able to select which people they want to collaborate with and place them on a whitelist of approved persons. Only those who are on the list will be able to contact you via Wave and everyone else will be ignored.

That feature should certainly help to address the concerns certain folks have about Wave’s “noise level,” to some, an overwhelming amount of activity that led them to call out Wave as a distraction and a time-waster instead of the futuristic productivity product it intends to be. By allowing those who can’t seem to embrace Wave’s cacophony the ability to limit their collaborators, Wave could transfer from noisy attention killer to useful tool in an instant.

Of the three features, the first two are already in place. No date was given on the whitelisting feature, only that it will be “coming soon.”

Discuss

Aside from announcing its new collaboration platform Google Wave today, Google has also introduced a set of real-time gadget APIs. These APIs allow Google gadgets hosted in different users’ browsers to communicate with each other.

Google’s overview of the APIs says:

The obvious application of these APIs is 1:1 gaming — at its most basic a Tic-Tac-Toe game between two users. However there are many other more complex (and arguably — depending on your thoughts about games — more interesting) scenarios that these APIs enable; for instance, a chat application that translates text as participants type it, or a shared whiteboard, or an application that lets a couple choose the best flight for their upcoming vacation.

Google Shares the following examples of applications utilizing the real-time APIs:

- Rock, Paper, Scissors
- Chess
- Interpreter

Moishe Lettvin, who announced the APIs on the Google Talkabout Blog, says that his "20% time" has been dedicated to this for a while, but eventually turned into his "80% time." You can tell how excited he is about this (and likely other big Google announcements coming out of the Developer Conference):

Also on Twitter, Kevin Marks points out that these APIs were discussed on Open Social a while back. Documentation for the APIs can be found here. There is also a discussion group set up, where Google is encouraging feedback.