Supply chain transactions could unfold with blistering
speed and with virtually no errors if a technology startup
called N.io Innovation Ltd. has its way.
Pronounced “Neo,” the year-old Broomfield, Colo.-based company recently unveiled an ambitious plan to
automate logistics, retail, and manufacturing operations by
installing inexpensive microprocessors at strategic nodes
such as sensors, scanners, and docks. Because each chip
uses N.io’s software framework to monitor the stream
of data generated at its node, the technology enables any
electronic device to make nearly instant decisions based on
programmable rules.
Applied to a manufacturing facility, that might mean a
N.io node hooked up to a flame sensor could detect a fire,
then quickly send instructions to other nodes that cooperate by shutting off liquid propane burners, triggering a fire
alarm, or instructing cranes to lift flammable materials out
of the danger zone.
In another example, a retailer could install a N.io node
in each UPC scanner at its checkout counters and instantly
compress inventory status updates from weekly batch processing into split-second intervals.
N.io’s biggest challenge was to design a software platform
that could be interoperable with any type of sensor, checkout scanner, auto ID reader, or other information source,
said Doug Standley, the company’s CEO and co-founder.
Designers also had to maintain a delicate balancing act of
loading the program onto nodes that have just enough processing power to be intelligent, but are not too expensive to
install throughout a large facility.
Finding that balance was crucial for avoiding what
Standley sees as a fatal flaw in the design of current tech-
nologies such as RFID tags and cloud computing: They
rely on uploading vast amounts of data to distant servers
before algorithms can begin to analyze the information and
generate reactions.
The company’s solution is to use its inexpensive smart
nodes to process all that raw data “on the edge” of the network, where the information originates, and only transmit
small batches of data in response.
“The velocity of the supply chain relies on a plethora of
piece-parts of information; most proprietary, most latent,”
Standley said. In contrast, the ideal application of N.io
would provide interoperable real-time logic, he said.
N.io’s approach would supercharge the Internet of
Things (IoT) by providing applied intelligence and automation to any business asset, according to a report by Glen
Allmendinger, CEO of Harbor Research, a technology consulting firm in Boulder, Colo. The company’s core innovation is an adaptive, real-time signal-processing platform
that can deliver distributed intelligence, control, and automation, Allmendinger said.
N.io plans to announce its first public customer later this
summer, after running limited rollouts with a number of
beta users, and will soon apply its “pervasive computing”
model to other business sectors struggling to handle the
vast amounts of data produced by sensors in the expanding
industrial Internet.
—Ben Ames
Colorado startup plans to
accelerate supply chain
computing
go figure …
58%
The percentage of U.S. consumers making an online
purchase in the past six months who chose extended
delivery times—four days or longer—over faster, more
expensive options.
SOURCE: PUROLATOR INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF NORTH AMERICAN ONLINE
BUYING BEHAVIOR
I.D. Systems Inc. has received a notice of allowance from
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a patent on a
remote vehicle rental system. The system incorporates a
vehicle-mounted device that communicates with porta-
ble electronic devices, such as smartphones, to enable
authorized renters to unlock the vehicles’ doors and
turn on the vehicles. … Crown Equipment Corp. has
published a three-part white paper series focused on
forklift connectivity, Changing Metrics—and Mindsets—
in the Warehouse. … Fox IV Technologies has released
its new TwinPrint Print and Apply with 2ST technolo-
gy printer-applicators. … Container shipping company
Maersk Line will now be providing regular container
cargo service through Jacksonville, Fla.’s port, Jaxport.
In other port news, stevedores at Jaxport’s Blount Island
Marine Terminal unloaded the first shipment of 53-foot
Wide-Top Pick cargo containers for use on Tote Inc.’s
new Marlin Class ships, the world’s first liquefied natu-
ral gas (LNG)-powered containerships. … The Knighted
brand of software has now been completely integrat-
ed into the material handling company Intelligrated’s
Intelligrated Software brand.
short takes
