the market for protection

02/03/2006 08:14:00 PM
Contained in our sadly ever-growing list of fears, is food contamination. The threats come from the likes of powerful bugs like E-coli and Salmonella. Obviously, this creates a huge market opportunity for innovative companies to come up with solutions.

One such player is the French company, Crylog who've developed a transparent film called Traceo, that can be attached directly to the barcode of any perishable item. When the film changes color, it indicates that the product is tainted or contaminated. The obvious application is for foodstuffs, like refrigerated sandwiches, but there are also potential applications in the medical supplies field, like tracking the freshness of blood and vaccines.

While we are on the subject of fear, famed sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling, spoke yesterday at the Lift06 conference, on the subject of mobile technological innovation.

One example he used was the multiplicity of protective technologies that can be used on shipping containers. As this photo of one of Sterling's slides shows, there are now a myriad of devices from trackers, fiber optics through to motion and weapon sensors, that can protect something that many thought was unprotectable.

Protection is such a pervasive trend, one that's visible in everything from fashion to food and identity. It seems likely that opportunities will continue in this area for some years to come.

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