ZURICH (SWITZERLAND): For companies worried about their international cargo transport, IBM, a leading technology player in hardware and logistics, is working on a solution that ensures safe transit of their packages.

IBM is actively working on Intelligent Trade Line, a transport system using the latest in nano-technology that can provide enhanced security for international trade. The system has been designed in such a way that the users, with the help of the radio frequency identification device attached to their cargo, can track the movement of the consignment they have registered to the minutest detail till the material reaches its final destination.

"This is like you can spot the location of the consignment, including the temperature and the heat inside the container going by the tag attached to the items that are being moved through the container," says IBM Zurich research laboratory content manager, Walter Hehl.

IBM with its latest discovery of High-K Metal Gate has reached a level of sophistication in nano-technology that the company is planning to explore the new materials other than the silicon to be used in the manufacture of chips to maximise the miniaturisation of the existing chip design to extract the maximum output from the minimal space available on the chip.

The company has come to a stage where the prototype of a broad range of sensors, including the people's sensors, place sensors, thing sensors and business sensors, are in the final stages of preparation. "We are in the process of developing the event processing software where data is being captured at increasing spatio temporal resolution," he said, adding that the day was not far when the authorised companies "will be playing a big brother's role in identifying the location and the movements of individuals."

Asked about the invasion into the privacy of individuals, he said: "It is not the question of invasion into the privacy of individuals as the availability of the technology will ensure that a group of people will act as guardians themselves to see that nobody will enter their premises without authorisation."

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