May 1, 2009 12:00 PM

GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company; and SandLinks Inc of Israel and Dallas TX, have developed an unprecedented In-transit Total Asset Visibility (ITAV) Solution, with the support of the BIRD Foundation. The ITAV system culminates the successful completion of a $2 million, multi-year development project that demonstrated the ability to track the location and condition of assets while in transit.

The system integrated GE Asset Intelligence's VeriWise Asset Tracking Service and SandLinks' Ultra Wide Band (UWB) RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. GE's telematics systems track the location and status of trailers, trucks, railcars, fleet vehicles, and other assets globally, while SandLinks provides real-time, item-level asset management, including inventory, location, and remote sensing.

A team of engineers and scientists from SandLinks and GE Global Research have combined application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs and system-level thinking to deliver the price and performance features required to capture value in this evolving market.

GE and SandLinks have plans to offer this new integrated ITAV service. Commercial pilots will be available in third quarter 2009.