Fixing What Ain't Broke
from the an-ounce-of-prevention... dept
A great article about what's going on with diagnostic tools to prevent machine breakdowns. Most of the article talks about how they're being used in airplanes and trains, but soon they'll be in cars and consumer appliances (and eventually the human body) as well. They credit three factors with the success of these new "advanced warning systems". Lighter, smaller sensors and cheaper, more powerful computing resources are the two obvious ones. The last one, though, is the most interesting. Using new statistical techniques and models to make use of all the data the sensors pick up. Of course, these are all related. These new statistical models only work because of the increased computing power. I don't know how everyone feels about this, but the idea of having a monitor that tells me to take an aspirin before I get a headache would be pretty cool.
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