Overflowing Garbage And Rats: There's (Gonna Be) An App For That
A Rat in New York David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons A new idea could help reduce overflowing garbage cans and rat outbreaks: fitting trash receptacles with sensors that can tell how full they are, and when they are broken or go missing. These sensors, wireless Bluetooth low energy (BLE) modules, could then transmit data to the phones of people who walk by, says Samrat Saha of the DCI Marketing Group in Milwaukee, according to the tech site O'Reilly Radar: As pedestrians who have downloaded custom "garbage can" apps on their BLE-capable iPhone or Android devices pass by, continues Saha, the information is collected from the module and relayed to a Cloud-hosted service for action — garbage pick-up for brimming cans, in other words. The process will also allow planners to optimize trash can placement, redeploying receptacles from areas where need...