Bronson Healthcare in Kalamazoo, Michigan is using what Bruce Sterling calls the Cisco Spime Tracker to solve the wheelchair location problem:
A quick glance at the screen shows exactly where the tagged wheelchairs are located...Patients wait no more than a few minutes for a wheelchair, and we save $28,000 a month by eliminating searches.
Cisco explains that "hospitals are unable to find between 10 and 15 percent of the devices they own...devices are mostly misplaced rather than stolen."
Strange Connections
Johns Hopkins University enables wireless Internet access on their campus shuttle buses, while simultaneously providing real-time shuttle bus tracking in Google Earth. I recommend watching the buses with your kids while singing the wheels on the bus. It's probably even cooler when you're actually on the bus.
