An undergraduate student from Boston University has designed a smart trash can using motes that can detect if a public trash can is full or empty. Just yesterday I walked past an overflowing trash can with garbage spread all over the street and thought "why doesn't the city pick up the trash more often?" Here is a compelling solution as part of the business plan competition at BU. One point though--it may cost $212 to build today (something tells me they're using motes more expensive than our very own Tmote Sky), but should reduce to much less than $100 in volume. Check out the article here:

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2006/06/05/motes_make_trash_cans_smarter/

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