By SUBASHINI SELVARATNAM

PUTRAJAYA: IBM Corp believes technology can give people smarter options that will make for a better planet. Among these would be efficient transportation systems, transparent supply chains, and improved emergency services.

New computing models give us the capability to manage the massive amounts of data generated by the proliferation of end-user devices, sensors, and actuators. And together with advanced analytics, these technologies are making us smarter.

“With these systems in place, there is an opportunity for us to think and act in new ways,” said Annie Cheung, vice-president of the smarter planet initiative for Asean, at IBM Singapore.

“If we can connect the systems that run our world, we can make our planet smarter, i.e. having better traffic conditions, healthier food, cleaner water, and safer cities.”

She is on the 11-member International Advisory Panel (IAP) that met on Tuesday here. The panel helps guide the country’s MSC Malaysia initiative to build up a knowledge-based and innovation-centric economy.

“When we say ‘smarter planet,’ we mean thinking and acting in new ways to make our systems more efficient, productive and responsive,” Cheung said.

She said intelligent systems would enable us to respond to changes more quickly and accurately, resulting in better results, as well as have the ability to predict and optimise for any future situations.

“Fifteen petabytes of new information is being generated everyday. This is eight times more than all the information contained in US libraries,” she said. That’s a lot of power that can be harnessed for the betterment of people and the planet.

Employing RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to keep track of meat and poultry products, for example, right from the farm to the store shelf would help ensure freshness and safety of these and other foodstuff.

“Consumers would also be more assured of the quality of the products they are buying,” Cheung said. “This is the ability to see without having to be there.”

Good examples

Technology can also help reduce traffic congestion. She said Stockholm put in an intelligent toll system in the city centre, which resulted in 20% less traffic, 40% lower engine emissions and added 40,000 users to its public transportation system within two years of implementation.

Traffic woes can also be solved by implementing an electronic fare-management system to enable rail, bus and road users to buy passes via SMS or an online system. Also, employing an intelligent traffic management system would reduce jams.

There are also systems that can improve public safety, which when coupled to community-based programmes, would enable better crime prevention, as well as faster response times by law-enforcement and emergency services personnel.

Fore warned is fore armed, said Cheung. That’s why the New York Police Department Crime Information Warehouse gives its officers mobile access to more than 120 million criminal complaints, arrests and 911-call records, as well as five million criminal records, parole files and crime-related photographs.

This data system, she said, has resulted in a 27% reduction in crime in that city. A lot of other cities could benefit from such technology.

According to Cheung, the world is becoming increasingly instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.

“Everything is being instrumented — supply chains, healthcare networks and even natural resources like rivers,” she said.

“We have the means to measure and see the exact condition of everything on the planet, as well as predict future impacts on these.”