Oracle tracks NASA waste

Oracle deployed a NASA program that combines Radio Frequency Identification, temperature sensors and databases to enhance the security and safety of managing hazardous materials.

"This goes way beyond the typical supply chain uses you've seen for RFID," said Allyson Fryhoff, vice president of Oracle Sensor-Based Services. "RFID is one more enabling technology to give you visibility as to what happens in the physical world."

ChemSecure, which is a pilot program, integrates RFID and sensor-based technology with the Defense Department's Web-based Hazardous Materials Management System database to track usage, shipment and storage of hazardous materials.

Officials at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, in Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., use the real-time information in the database as a tool in making decisions about transporting and storing hazardous materials, and sending alerts to first responders to warn of chemical changes. For example, security professionals are notified if unauthorized access attempts are made to obtain hazardous materials, while environmental works are alerted when the storage limit of a hazardous chemical locker is close to exceeding capacity.