b"A Smart Watch for Your SpudsSmartSpud records data about the journey your potatoes make from the field to storage to shipping. BY: ASHLEY ROBINSONA POTATO GOES THROUGH quite a trek before it ever endsWe are starting to redo parts of our linefocusing on parts that up on a store shelf. From growing in field to being harvested andcreate more bruising for the potatoes. Also, areas where we thought trucked to a conveyor line and then loaded into a storage shed, allthere was more bruising going on, and then finding out that those before its sent back along that conveyor line to a packing facility. Itsweren't the areas. This allows us to have better information so we a long journey and there can be a lot of bumps and bruises happencan put out a better-quality potato, Tyler Heppell with Heppells along the way which isnt good for a perishable crop like a potato. Potatoes, says in a phone interview.SmartSpud is trying to help reduce those bumps and bruises. TheThe SmartSpud is a blue and red egg-shaped device. It records tracking device rides along with potatoes on their travels recordingeven when not connected to the tablet and will update the data once everything so that growers can adjust machine settings and keepconnected to the tablet, similar to how a smart watch connects to a their spuds as safe as possible. The SmartSpud sensor communicatesphone. The SmartSpud is rechargeable and has an eight-hour battery using Bluetooth in real time to a Microsoft Surface tablet. life, when not in data collection mode it will power down after 15 What it tells you is what excessive impacts are you having to theminutes. To find it when in use you can set off an alarm from the tablet.potato species, each one has some different variables on that end,The SmartSpud currently has a one-time cost of USD$8,000 Larry Doherty, chief operating officer of SmartSpud, explains inwhich includes the sensor, tablet and lifetime access to the cloud a Microsoft Teams interview. It tells you when you're exceedingportal.threshold in terms of what can cause damage to the product. We do all the testing, communication testing, battery testing SmartSpud was initially developed 12 years ago in the Maritimes.on the sensor, just basically application testing. We want to make At the time it was determined there was no sensor product availablesure that when that box arrives at your destination, it's ready out of that acted and behaved like a real productmeaning it wentthe box. All you got to do is turn the tablet on and it's good to go, through the entirety of a processing line. The initial product wasDoherty explains. developed and since then has been updated and expanded to the current SmartSpud device which was released in 2016. It helps (growers) by giving them visibility into their entire operation. Right from the moment that the product is removed from the field till its put in the truck that was brought into the warehouse. Right through till it leaves their facility to ensure that theyre optimizing everything that they do to ensure that potato incurs as little damage as possible, Doherty says.Heppells Potatoes in Surrey, B.C. started using SmartSpud a decade ago. The fresh potato farm wanted to have a better understanding of how their packing line worked and see just exactly where their spuds were being downgraded from number one to two due to bruising.The SmartSpud sensor is a blue and red egg-shaped device that records any bumps or bruises a potato might encounter on its packing journey.PHOTO: SMARTSPUD20SPUDSMART.COMWinter 2024"