IBM Donates Open Standards To Connect Smart Devices With Back-End SystemsIBM Donates Open Standards To Connect Smart Devices With Back-End Systems

IBM and the University of Florida today unveiled a technology roadmap that lets wired and wireless smart devices send their real-time data to back-end systems.

The University of Florida is using the technology in a prototype smart-house to demonstrate how doctors and hospitals can remotely monitor chronically ill patients, such as those with diabetes and hypertension, from their homes.

In the health-care sector, real-time data from vital-sign monitoring devices could be automatically analyzed in back-end computer systems for unusual patterns that need immediate intervention by a health-care provider or to indicate an emerging trend.

But the technology isn't just for the health-care sector. "The same standards can be used in other industries, like supply chain," to send RFID sensor data directly to back-end distribution systems, said Karla Norsworthy, IBM's VP of software standards, in an interview.

IBM donated the core components of the technology to the device project of open-source software organization Eclipse's Open Healthcare Framework.