Miniature sensors being developed by CSIRO promise to provide the answers to questions which seem to arise regularly in modern office workplaces like: "Where's my pen?" and; "Who nicked my stapler?"
CSIRO is developing FLECK™ Nano – a miniature version of the highly successful FLECK sensor nodes that independently record environmental conditions then cooperate with each other to wirelessly send their data to a collection point.
Two students working with CSIRO's vacation scholarship scheme have been applying their research skills to bringing FLECK Nanos indoors. Doing so means things like temperature and power use can be monitored at a very refined level and small objects can be tracked unobtrusively.
"The idea of pervasive computing has been touted for some time, but is not yet available for everyday office items," CSIRO ICT Centre researcher, Phil Valencia, says.
"We're aiming to enable a level of ubiquitous sensing that hasn't been experienced yet and see how it impacts on day-to-day office activities."
Two university students have spent their summer holidays working with Mr Valencia as part of CSIRO's vacation scholarship scheme.