Building Plug-and-Play Networked Smart Transducers The Proposed IEEE P 1451 . 2 Standard Enables Transducer Manufacturers to Support Multiple Fieldbuses

Several people have attempted to label the time in which we are now living as the “information age,” or the “communications age,” or even the “MTV/Wired age.” All of these “ages” share the common characteristics that they involve smart products, shared information, and communications. The label “smart” has been applied to products ranging from bombs to toasters, and has therefore lost some of its meaning. Perhaps we need a USDA definition of “smart” similar to the one proposed for “organic.”