Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 08 April 2008 11:06
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 4
Goldsworthy then waxed lyrical about some “examples of where video-based telemetry services could have real benefits were the remote viewing and monitoring of aquaculture sites, livestock in paddocks or even for security purposes”, with “Telstra was currently trialling a number of applications with developers.”
Goldsworthy continued, saying: "Currently businesses such as farms, vineyards and aquaculture operators are using telemetry over the slower 2G mobile networks such as CDMA to monitor data such as rainfall, wind speed, soil moisture and water temperature.
Aside from integration with a Canon camera, an existing suite of compatible devices are available, which include:
- Davis Weather Station
- Campbell Scientific data logger
- Bar Code Readers
- Weight Scale and NLIS readers
- Gate, Pump, irrigation and lighting control
Goldsworthy continued that: "These businesses now have the opportunity not just to get this data from remote sites but to actually see what is happening on the ground and control remote equipment without leaving their office.
"This has the potential to offer enormous savings in both time and resources as businesses no longer have to travel to remote sites to check the status of or make adjustments to their operations."
No doubt the solutions won’t be cheap – nothing in the agricultural industry ever is, except perhaps the produce they create which gets sold at massive mark-ups by supermarkets – but the solution will surely be worth its weight in gold if it all works as advertised.
Interestingly, the RMCam solution from the UNE is still classed as a ‘beta’, but then given the world’s technology companies to class everything as a beta, this isn’t so surprising, and clearly indicates more work will be done to further tweak and enhance the service to the satisfaction of its customers.
When you visit the RMCam
website, you can actually freely register to see the RMCam solution at work, in a live demonstration with a camera located at, naturally, the UNE.
For more information on specifically what the RMCam offers, please read onto page 3.
