Calgary, AB (September 15, 2005) — Entrepreneur Wayd McNally's encounter with a bruised potato inspired him to invent a wireless technology that detects and reports damage, waste, safety problems and other environmental conditions in the bulk processing, handling and transportation of foodstuffs and other consumer goods.

Charlottetown, PEI-based Sensor Wireless Inc.'s patented wireless diagnostic and risk-management tools, such as Smart Spud, CrackLess Egg, Produce Wizard, Smart Bottle and Agent QC, are improving the entire supply chain management of foodstuffs and other consumer goods.

McNally, President and CEO of Sensor Wireless, has won this year's Manning Innovation Awards prestigious $25,000 Award of Distinction, sponsored by CanWest Global Communications Corp., for his innovation now being used in more than 20 countries around the world.

McNally, raised on a farm, got his bright idea when he was just 21, lying on his back in a field, looking up at a potato-harvesting machine that was bruising too many potatoes, reducing their market value. "I thought, 'Wouldn't it be simple just to take something and throw it in the harvester with the potatoes, watch it and know exactly where the problem is and what's causing it, so you can fix it?'"

After patenting a wireless-detection and -reporting "electronic potato" — dubbed the Smart Spud — McNally went on to develop industry-specific devices for eggs, produce and beverage containers.

Sensor Wireless customizes its solution to look like a particular shape or size 'vessel,' whether it's a potato, an egg, produce or a beverage container. "We have a real-time, wireless application, which enables us to transmit the data and translate it into some useful information that tells the customer the magnitude of the problem and where it's located, so the problem can be quickly fixed."

Sensor Wireless's devices enable up to 11 different parameters on the condition of the product being monitored — including mechanical forces acting on the object and temperature — to be recorded in real time and transmitted simultaneously back to users on a handheld Palm or desktop computer.

Sensor Wireless's technology "has provided food and beverage processors around the world with an important tool to increase food safety, reduce production losses, and verify the safe production operation of their product lines," says Frank Hennigar, President of the giant U.S.-based Food Systems Group of the Americas Inc.

McNally, named one of Atlantic Canada's Top 50 CEOs by Atlantic Business Magazine, formed his own consulting firm after graduating from agricultural college. He started Sensor Wireless in 2002 by cashing in his RRSPs, getting a loan from his mother, and refinancing his property.

Today, the company has 10 employees, over $1 million in annual revenue, and is an IBM Business Partner. Its products are being used by North American companies such as Campbell's Soup, McCain Foods Canada, Coors Breweries, Dole and Del Monte, Abbott Laboratories and Cal-Maine Foods, and abroad by such firms as Carlsberg and Tuborg Breweries of Denmark and Kirin Breweries of Japan.

Since 1982, the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation's annual program (www.manningawards.ca) has rewarded leading Canadian innovators with $3.5 million in prize money. This year's four major winners, being announced throughout September, will share a total of $145,000. All will be honoured at the annual gala awards dinner Sept. 30 in Winnipeg.