Applied Science

They're called "early adopters"-those brave souls who see the value of new technology, or new value in existing technology, and make it a part of their business, government or even their own lifestyles. You may already benefit from early adopters without knowing it. After all, when you pick up your dry cleaning, you see only that it's on time and perfect-not the radical new tracking system that made that possible. You taste the juicy, red tomato on your hamburger-not the amazing technology on the farm that grew it.

But new and adapted technology can make an enormous difference, whether it's in the operating room or a car engine. Southwest Florida has its share of early adopters, and their pioneering spirit may already be changing your life and your business.

EVERYTHING AUTOMATIC

Imagine a single mouse click that adjusts your lamps, window shades, thermostats and security cameras to the exact settings you want. Naples-based Wireless Home offers this sort of "home automation," along with media servers that enable you to store photos, video and music in one location and enjoy them from any computer in the house, or from your big-screen TV.

While a number of offices, restaurants and sales floors could benefit from such mood-setting tech, Wireless Home has so far installed its system only in houses. The company has been honing its product for two years and relaunched in March, not long after Microsoft released Windows Vista Media Center. That software controls the digital entertainment in Wireless Home's system, while a product called Life|ware controls the lighting and appliances.

"Our system always works the same, no matter what room you're in," says Wireless Home president Matt Peters. The company showroom-including a living room, kitchen and home office-demonstrates: You can watch a movie on the flat screen in the living room or from the kitchen touch-screen computer as you simultaneously look up a recipe on the Web. The Niveus Media Center hardware (which comes with Windows Vista Media Center software) and Life|ware together run from $10,000 to $15,000-not including appliances, sound systems, TVs and computers.

"Our customers are usually people who didn't grow up with high tech. They're attracted by the [system's] ease of use," says Peters. "They tend to be 50 years old or older, and from the Midwest." That is, until local businesses begin to see the value in such systems.

EVERY BUTTON IN PLACE

Has your dry cleaner ever misplaced your favorite shirt? As you wait at the counter, watching that long line of clothes complete circuit after circuit on the rotating metal track, you might have thought, "There's got to be a better way of doing this."

Platinum Total Fabricare in Bonita Springs and Naples has found a better way, using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and three sets of conveyors, each controlled by computer to perform a specific function. RFID tags are affixed to every item received; the tags contain tiny computer chips that communicate with special antennae, which pass information to the computer. The computer knows where in the shop each item of clothing is supposed to go next, and spins the correct conveyor to take it there.

"We're only the second dry cleaner in the world to use the [RFID plus the computer-controlled conveyors] system fully," says Sandy Waite, who co-owns the business with her husband, Joe. The system, made by an Italian company called Metalprogetti and costing Platinum $330,000, relieves the staff of sorting and ordering-tasks that humans can do slowly and sometimes inaccurately. The Waites were introduced to the RFID system while visiting a facility in Atlanta where Procter & Gamble was testing different technologies for use in dry cleaning.

"Our drivers used to spend two hours every morning organizing the orders they had to deliver," says Sandy. "Now they come in and punch up their routes on the computer, and the conveyor brings them each order on their route in the reverse order of delivery," which is how they need to be loaded onto the truck.

And, she adds, "we've had a nearly 100 percent drop in mis-assembly"-the industry term for putting your shirt with someone else's order.

GREEN TECH

While Congress, Big Oil and automobile manufacturers dicker about emission standards and alternative-fuel requirements, some South Florida residents have decided to tackle these issues themselves. One of the leaders of this do-it-yourself movement is John Puig of Naples, whose Web site, www.naplesbiofuel.com, sells brass valves, thermostats and tubes of various sizes and shapes. He also sells a book that explains how to attach these to your diesel-fueled car so that it will run on vegetable oil scavenged from the fryers of restaurants.

"Six of us run our cars from one restaurant," says Puig, who also hosts informal get-togethers where he and other biofuel enthusiasts share expertise and resources.

For those not so handy with a wrench, Phil's Classic Cars in Fort Myers Beach will install the necessary hardware for you.

After that, you need a restaurant willing to donate its waste vegetable oil (WVO). The oil must then be filtered-Puig's Web site sells the necessary gear-so that bits of fried calamari don't end up in your engine block.

For the extra effort, you get a car that runs on renewable fuel and helps decrease the U.S. trade deficit. But if those altruistic incentives don't motivate you, consider your pocket-book. "Cars running on WVO get about 20 to 25 miles per gallon," Puig says. Assuming you get your WVO for free and do your own filtering, your only expense is the cost of the filters themselves. Factoring that in, Puig says, "your fuel ends up costing about five cents per gallon." One Southwest Florida restaurant, Pinchers Crab Shack, has even adapted its company vehicle to run on WVO from its fryers.

Perhaps best of all, you no longer sweat when events in foreign lands threaten to disrupt the flow of oil. You're already sitting atop a wealth of WVO. "There are so many tourist places here," says Puig, "and everybody's got French fries."

CRIME-FIGHTING ON THE MOVE

y your trade far away from the Cape Coral Police Department, where the cops have stocked up on high-tech gizmos.

For instance, detectives no longer need jars of powder to reveal fingerprints. "Our [Sirchie] Krimesite scope looks at fingerprints without processing," says Larry Stringham, CCPD forensic supervisor. "It's like having night vision for fingerprints."

The department now takes fingerprints using an inkless scanning system called Live Scan. Comparing fingerprints is handled by the department's AFIX Technologies computer system. "We used to send them to the state's system [for analysis]," says Stringham. "It took several weeks or months to get results. This weekend we had some burglaries and were able [by using AFIX] to get the results back to detectives in 24 hours."

Another tool for speeding up investigations is the Major Crime Scene Van, a 40-foot box truck outfitted with equipment that enables police to analyze evidence on the spot, rather than sending it back to the lab. "We designed it for our department," says Stringham. "It's a one-in-the-world vehicle."

LANES IN THE DIRT

The U.S. Department of Defense operates the Global Positioning System (GPS), through which Earth-orbiting satellites beam signals down, enabling receivers to precisely calculate their latitude and longitude. Though designed to guide cruise missiles and other precision-guided munitions, GPS has been put to use in many applications beyond the military.

For example, Six L's Packing Company in Immokalee uses GPS-guided tractors to plow rows that are straighter and more precisely spaced than a human driver could create. More precision means less wasted space on Six L's 8,000 acres, which means more product for customers (which include McDonald's and Wal-Mart).

"When the [tractor] driver is within 10 feet of the target [row], he mashes a green button. After that, he doesn't steer at all," says director of operations Jamie Williams. John Deere makes the tractor-guiding system, called GreenStar, and Six L's operates a fleet of 10 to 15 GreenStar-equipped tractors.

For now at least, Six L's drivers still have jobs.

"They run the throttle and watch the implement behind them," says Williams. And when the cultivating is done, a human being is still needed to drive the tractor back to the equipment facility.

QUICK RECOVERY

With its four mechanical arms bearing down on a patient, the da Vinci S HD Surgical System looks more like an instrument for torture than a robot designed to minimize discomfort. But don't be fooled.

"Removing prostate cancer used to require an eight-inch incision and anywhere from a pint to a quart of blood, followed by a lengthy hospital stay," says Naples urologist William Figlesthaler. "With the da Vinci S, that same patient loses only an ounce of blood and the incision is tiny. The patient goes home the next day."

Physicians Regional Medical Center-Pine Ridge in Naples recently obtained a da Vinci S. It's the first of its kind in Southwest Florida, although Naples Community Hospital has an older model da Vinci. Figlesthaler used Physicians Regional's machine for the first time on March 28 while performing a laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

During the procedure, he sat across the room from his patient, his face pressed into a control unit so that he could experience in 3D what the robot's cameras were doing. As he worked the controls, the da Vinci S scaled down his movements and eliminated the small tremors that afflict even a surgeon's hands. "It's almost like being inside a patient," says Figlesthaler.