2001-02

The Solveik Gård farm (est. 1722), in northern Norway

Prof. Gershenfeld asked what kind of technological problems Telenor had with which the Media Lab could help out. Telenor suggested assisting farmer Haakon Karlsen, who keeps sheep and reindeer on his farm. The farm is in a very alpine area containing glaciers and valleys with elevations ranging from sea level to 1800 meters above sea level. Karlsen needs to protect his herds from wolverines and lynx, and to keep them out of treacherous areas during the winter.

Karlsen and Telenor also were interested in keeping track of the animals' health and documenting the life (production) cycle within each herd.

• The animals already wore ID tags on their ears. Telenor and the Media Lab built on these tags, creating a new system that could be used remotely to identify individual animals.
• The tag had to fit comfortably on the animal's ear and withstand a relatively hostile environment with harsh weather. To be cost-effective, the tags had to cost less than $20 each and have low power consumption.
• Some of the animals' tags served as mobile base stations (Sheep Net) using 802.11 as the carrier.