Wireless monitoring for animal health.

A visit to Germany and Switzerland was fruitful with some interesting ways the Europeans are using wireless technology. As elsewhere, wireless is being used in almost every restaurant to bill smart cards and credit cards tableside. An interesting application of wireless was encountered in the dairy farming industry where the use of wireless enabled bolus' monitor health and various other states of cows and other farm animals. This is different from RFID that is used in identification. An interesting aside to this is the fact that there is very little data available on the propagation loss of a radio signal through living tissue ( in bovines and other species). Frequencies are not really standardized. There is a European standard but it appears that vendors are still using their own specifications. Happy new year to all!