Where has wireless technology most changed the wine business? It is probably in the field. Electronics weren’t originally outdoor friendly. Rain and dust wreak havoc on computer circuits. But as Wi-Fi and solar panels grew more popular, inventors started looking outside. Now, power-sipping wireless sensor networks are cropping up in more and more outdoor venues.
“Wireless sensor networks extend the Internet … out into the environment,” says Mr. Holler, a retired Intel technologist who owns and runs the 4.4-acre vineyard in Napa, California. He is a viticulturist and a technology enthusiast who has been working closely with MEMSIC in the development and testing of the eKo platform to increase the quality and quantity of his grape harvest by using and controlling his water resources.
To get grapes of this really high quality, the wines have to be kept a
bit thirsty. In the science of viticulture, this is defined as a
certain level of “leaf water potential.” At the same time, if the vines
get too thirsty—if their leaf water potential is too low—the plant will
wilt.This is where the yellow containers come into play. Each container is
a node in the sensor network, with a wireless transmitter, a solar
cell, a battery, and interfaces for up to four different sensors. The
network is self-organizing; hook up the sensors you want and hook up the sensors you want and the nodes in the network will figure out how to transmit the data to your
gateway computer. If a node breaks or loses contact, the rest of the
network will adapt.
Memsic eKo device (yellow) with weather monitors—Photo by Erik Mellgren
There are sensors that keep track of the water pressure in the
irrigation system and sensors for wind, humidity and temperature. And
most important of all, sensors measuring the “soil water tension”, which
can be described as how hard the plant’s roots have to suck to draw
moisture from the earth.The soil moisture tension corresponds to the leaf water potential.
(The drier the earth, the thirstier the plants.) The sensor measurements
give Holler a way to keep his vines at just the right level of
thirstiness, without using too much water, and without worrying that
they might wilt.
They are also used in other sensor networks applications, like environmental research. And of course, a very logical step would be to use them for control as well as monitoring—jobs like opening irrigation valves or starting and stopping pumps.
