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The Smart Sensor Web 160

Posted by timothy from the buzzword-overload dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "As writes Vincent Tao for GEO World, integrating the billions of sensors already present in our environment with the power of the Web will represent 'a revolutionary leap in earth observation.' 'In short, the Sensor Web offers full-dimensional, full-scale and full-phase sensing and monitoring of Earth at all levels: global, regional and local.' The Sensor Web will need to have five characteristics to be successful. It must be interoperable, intelligent, dynamic, flexible and scalable. And the Sensor Web architecture will have four layers: a sensor layer, a communication layer, a location layer and an information layer. When it's here, it will have 'extraordinary significance for science, environmental monitoring, public safety and many other domains of activity.' This summary contains the essential concepts of the original and dense article."
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The Smart Sensor Web More

The Smart Sensor Web

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  • butterfly? (Score:5, Funny)

    by SHEENmaster ( 581283 ) <travis@uUUUtk.edu minus threevowels> on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:01PM (#7141011) Homepage Journal
    Can we finally kill that damn butterfly and stop these hurricanes?

  • stop looking at me (Score:3, Funny)

    by OwlofCreamCheese ( 645015 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:01PM (#7141012)
    if this was an anime, the 5 things it needed would be diffrent teenagers with social/mental problems and they would combine together to create "GLOBAL SENSOR WEB!"
    • Um... Captain Planet was from the US.....
      • Captain Planet was a straight rip-off of the Japanese sentai [cs.uu.nl] format. You have a five-man team, comprised to diverse personalities and appearances (though the show was too compulsively PC to have just one token female character). The heroes are commonly linked to certain colors/elements/types of terrain, and summon their robots or super powers from these associations. The main characters each have some trivial fighting abilities to deal with the rotating villian of the day. In the end, though, to defeat

  • Sensory Overload (Score:5, Funny)

    by l810c ( 551591 ) * on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:02PM (#7141013)
    These Buzzwords are killing me...

    interoperable, intelligent, dynamic, flexible and scalable Arggg.

    a sensor layer, a communication layer, a location layer and an information layer Ahhhh.

    Depending on the properties of sensors, geographic coverage, network access capabilities and, more importantly, domain applications, the physical architecture (i.e., the first three layers) can be very different. The information layer serves as a backbone and shares a commonality. This layer is a gateway to integrate and fuse observations from spatially referenced sensors. It connects widely distributed in-situ sensors and remote sensors over wired or wireless networks. Interoperability becomes a key to enable the information layer's integration capability. Uppercut.

    Well it sure Sounds Cool...

    • Bingo, sir.
    • But....

      Will it run on Linux?

      Linux needs buzzword ridden software or whatever this is. FYI, I didn't read the article and I certainly don't want to! Ignorance is bliss.

    • Re:Sensory Overload (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stewby18 ( 594952 ) on Monday October 06, 2003 @12:17AM (#7141351)
      These Buzzwords are killing me...


      interoperable, intelligent, dynamic, flexible and scalable Arggg.

      Just because something is a buzzword doesn't mean that it doesn't have meaning or that it isn't important.

      • interoperable - There's going to be a ton of different architectures, software, etc. out there. Unless a system can communicate whith all of them, it can't make use of them.
      • intelligent - That's a heck of a lot of data; it's going to have to be processed quite a bit before humans deal with it, or it's useless.
      • dynamic - The sensors will be moving around and going on- and off-line all the time. You have to take that into consideration when designing.
      • flexible - If it won't be a centrally-controlled deployment, then the ability to do as much of what you want as possible with what is available is very important. Also, see 'dynamic'.
      • scalable - There are a heck of a lot of sensors. You can't say "let's have them all communicate directly with one central server." Scalability is perhaps the most important feature of any large, dynamic network.

      Sometimes things get to be buzzwords because they actually matter. Horsepower is a buzzword in the car arena, but that doesn't mean that it's not important to look for if you want a truck that will tow heavy things.

      • any global sensor net will need all of this features (and more) implictly.

        No need to state the obvious.

        A brief overview of the various technologies and protocols which endeavor to tie everything we have together, and lay groundwork for future developments would have been taken less negatively.

        It sounds like work is ongoing, according to the article, and the article pointed to by that article, but no leads or pointers to see the progress for yourself are provided.

        At least I can get the name of some field
        • At least I can get the name of some field experts, so now I'd have to cross-check them against citation indexes.

          Whee, fun. I thought slashdot was supposed to minimize the effort needed to learn and play about new, cool, things, instead of copying speculation in blogs and telling me "trust me, its out there".

          Let me know when you find some! I'm researching sensor webs for agricultural use at the moment, and both the IT Journals and the Ag Journals seem to be ignoring the idea.

      • Alternate Meanings (Score:4, Interesting)

        by benjamindees ( 441808 ) on Monday October 06, 2003 @05:49AM (#7142223) Homepage
        Never trust vague government proposals. The amount of buzzwords in this one is just too much to let go without comment:

        • interoperable- We want to be able to spy on everything from cars to refrigerators. These various systems should be able to coordinate their spying automatically.

        • intelligent- We're not very smart; we want the electronics to do the thinking for us and just tell us who the terrorists are, kinda like in Minority Report.

        • dynamic- We don't yet know exactly what we want, but whatever it is, it had better do everything we want.

        • flexible- This important spying technology will probably only be initially approved by citizen-voters as traffic-monitors or whatnot. Naturally, we want to be able to use it for other things (spying).

        • scalable- We want our spy systems to easily transition from spying on just a few ATMs or traffic intersections to tracking everyone 24/7.

        Horsepower.. it's.. important to look for if you want a truck that will tow heavy things.

        It's not important at all. My inline 6-cylinder Jeep will tow more than any V8 regardless of the horsepower because it is designed for high torque and has twice as many gears. It might not go as quickly as a 454 with a turbo but it could pull a tractor-trailer if you could find a way to attach it. I think the fact that you don't even recognize the complete irrelevance of horsepower to your example makes it prime for categorization as a buzzword.
        • My inline 6-cylinder Jeep will tow more than any V8 regardless of the horsepower because it is designed for high torque...

          Ahhh, torque... now there's an automotive buzzword. There are even fewer people that have a clue what it is than understand horsepower. I think you made the parent poster's point nicely.

    • >interoperable, intelligent, dynamic, flexible and scalable

      they forgot "interactive" and "multimedia".

      ph
  • I, for one, welcome our new smart sensor overlords.
    • This isn't funny for two reasons. One, that joke is dead. Two, our new smart sensor overlords are our old smart sensor overlords; our assorted governments. What do you think they're spending all that CPU power that they have locked underground on? I bet they have enough work to keep all the world's current computers busy for at least a century, if only they could get access to that cpu time. (Maybe that's why those NSA keys are in the NT registry) :)
    • Or maybe, perhaps, not-so-smart sensor overloads...

      mmm, information overload.
    • Yes, quite useful...

  • "...billions of sensors already present" (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:02PM (#7141018)
    There are that many X10 webcams out there already?

  • Get ready for some tinfoil hats (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BizidyDizidy ( 689383 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:03PM (#7141020)
    This is precisely the kind of article that lends itself to conspiracy theory. Typically, I'm skeptical of that kind of reaction, but this is getting a little creepy.

    The real task is to rely on government (or corporate interests?) to not abuse the power that such an in-depth system can provide. Does anyone trust them to do so?

    I'm all for the "oh, neat" factor, but it often seems that the people producing such things aren't cognizant enough of ALL of the ramifications.

  • And if the US govt. has anything to say about it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:04PM (#7141031)
    it will run on Windows.

    despite all of the horror befalling windows users - the govt., esp the military, does not get it.

    • despite all of the horror befalling windows users - the govt., esp the military, does not get it.

      Windows is a reasonably stable operating system that has few problems when intelligently managed. It runs on a large variety of platforms, and few devices are placed on the market without drivers for it. Training for it is widely and easily available, and many folk have experience with using it. Software designed to run on it, and the experience needed to write it, are widely available.

      The folks who "don't

      • The cost of training is equal regardless of whether you are training MS Office or Open Office.

        Software availability - I have found more useful software *for free* for GNU/Linux than I have seen for Windoze.

        Linux is cost efficient and has more applications available.
        • "Linux is cost efficient and has more applications available."

          Too true! When all those 1000s of SourceForge projects eventually get out of Alpha/Beta or even "Idea" phase we will be in application heaven! So many text editors and email programs I`ll be like a kid in a candy store!
          • There are plenty of tools available already that are beyond beta stage; take Open Office, for example.

            Additionally, there are plenty of GNU tools already out there that work.

            Alot of people poke linux with a stick, and walk away - instead of trying to really understand the paradigm behind it. In a nutshell, it is about combining a bunch of small powerful tools together to create new functionality. Its about brevity and elegance. Its about automation and multitasking taken beyond anything windoze is capa
  • FINALLY we can monitor which grocery store auto-doors are open. I'm sure the (insert hated government/trade organization here) will subpoena the hell out of it.

  • voices from the sky (Score:3, Funny)

    by potpie ( 706881 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:11PM (#7141069) Journal
    Now that we have omnipresent video monitoring, we should have omnipotent speakers installed everywhere in the world. That way, when someone sees something bad on the satellite video, they can yell at the person directly.
  • These sensors would be good for surveillance.

    Put little sensored cameras with radio transmitter onto bomb projectiles shaped like blades of grass to go undetected. The projectiles would hit the ground camera side up and stick in the ground.

    Put these sensors onto paths on the Pakistan border of Afghanistan where Bin Laden is presumed(in Pakistan tribe areas).

    Then take him out.

  • Tell me more! (Score:5, Funny)

    by orthogonal ( 588627 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:15PM (#7141089) Journal
    [I]ntegrating the billions of sensors already present in our environment with the power of the Web will represent 'a revolutionary leap in earth observation.'

    This sounds great!

    Please send me more information about how I can use these sensor nets to make a difference!

    You can email me at: John.Poindexter@Technically.Not.A.Convicted.Felon. gov

    PS, I'm sure my friend John would be interested too! You can email him a prospectus at:
    JAshcroft@We.Run.A.Christian.DOJ.gov

    PPS, don't worry if you get the email addresses wrong. I've got some friends who monitor almost all email, and I'm sure they'll pass along anything interesting!

  • Sensormatic (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Joney ( 703717 )
    The web is an excellent example of such technology -- it's no longer exciting, because it has become part of our life.

    A lack of excitement online due to the fact that it has become part of our life.

    What a fantastically depressing way to start an article, and make me want to read the rest of it! Listening to the weather report on the news is part of my life so it has lost excitement, so therefore I am only mildly interested in a superior weather/earth reporting system?

    And once we give the earth a u

  • Sounds familiar (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BiggerIsBetter ( 682164 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:17PM (#7141103)
    There was a Tawanese movie along these lines, called "So Close". Basically, they could access any camera anywhere, and could use it to provide "eye-in-the-sky" support for hits and get-aways. Oh, and Qi Shu looks hot as usual.

  • Smart Dust (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Via_Patrino ( 702161 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:18PM (#7141105)
    It looks like Smart Dust [linux.com].

    But why to make such thing global? And i think there isn't computer power to process or store such amount of information.

    • Re:Smart Dust (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Via_Patrino ( 702161 )
      It wouldn't be possible if global means linking and processing all global information avaible.
      Take a look at those huge weather computers, try to measure the impact of maximize their input data, and you'll know what i'm talking about.

      But if global means remote access to the information of some specific (small number of) sensors, it's ok.

      Don't know what the author was talking about but it seens to be the first one.
    • processing power has Moore's law to keep it going. Seriously, every 'next generation' of processor goes leaps and bounds ahead of the previous, just tapping into all that power is what is hard.

    • Not quite like Smart Dust (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tessaiga ( 697968 ) on Monday October 06, 2003 @01:40AM (#7141624)
      It looks like Smart Dust [linux.com]
      Not quite. Smart dust (a project that started back in 1999 at the Robotics lab [berkeley.edu] at Berkeley, and which reached the prototype testing stage [eetimes.com] earlier this year) was never intended to be a global, long-term sensor network. Its strengths are that it can be easily deployed in areas which have been traditionally difficult to fit with conventional wireless sensor networks (such as battlefields) and that it is self-organizing so minimal setup time is required (again, important in combat applications -- there was a reason Smart Dust research is funded by DARPA). Neither feature is essential to the global sensor network that this story is discussing.

      The primary reason Smart Dust wouldn't be a good fit (aside from the relatively high cost of deploying it, compared to using a cheaper, less miniaturized commercial solution) is the power problem. A big challenge for networking researchers involved with this type of sensor net is that each dust "mote" has very limited power reserves, which once consumed are typically not replenishable. (There have been ideas tossed around about recharging by harvesting solar or vibrational energy, but those are just idle speculation at the moment.) This is great for something like a battlefield network, which only needs to be up for the duration of your conflict, but is unsuitable for a persistant network.

  • Great Idea (Score:5, Informative)

    by code_echelon ( 709189 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:20PM (#7141112)
    This is a great idea and another really good use of the web. Once it is the later stages of the project this really could lead to a lot of advancements in research in the areas that apply. Here are a few other links I found interesing on this topic:

  • Stuff like this could be great or scarry.. its just a question of how open such information will be.

    I hope atleast some of the environmental stuff is publically accessible, that way I can check the polution levels outside before i leave the comfort of my home!


  • to many old movies? [movieprop.com]

  • No reliance on a single "tower" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by erpbridge ( 64037 ) <steve@erpbr[ ]e.com ['idg' in gap]> on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:30PM (#7141172) Journal
    I see they're being smart, and making a cumulative update forwarding capability in these.

    One thing I've always said a cell phone should have is the ability to pick up cell phone broadcast signals to determine which are nearby. Then, in the case of a tower outage, or straying too far away, you would switch over to a peer-to-peer version where your signal would get passed on via other phones to the next nearest tower. Hopefully this functionality would use a low quality, low bandwidth signal, so as not to disrupt other callers on the phones it's passed through.

    Of course, this would require a general reworking of the phones firmware between you and the tower, to leave a small gap of bandwidth open at all times for this forwarded traffic. (There's a good 5-10 years of rolling out phones!) The sooner some phones with this capability get rolled out, you'd ahave a slowly expanding infrastructure. However, it would greatly expand coverage area, especially in places that are just outside of the coverage area.

    These sensors use something like that to pass on data to the next nearest device with Internet connectivity. Good to see someone was thinking ahead. Just hope that capability doesn't get held back because of a budget cut or "I'm not going to pay for someone else's traffic" NIMBY arguments.

    • One thing I've always said a cell phone should have is the ability to pick up cell phone broadcast signals to determine which are nearby. Then, in the case of a tower outage, or straying too far away, you would switch over to a peer-to-peer version where your signal would get passed on via other phones to the next nearest tower. Hopefully this functionality would use a low quality, low bandwidth signal, so as not to disrupt other callers on the phones it's passed through.

      Unsurprisingly given how many sm

      • The primary reason we don't see this isn't actually the channel allocation and spectral efficiency issues you mention; it's a much more simple problem. While most new cell phones have standby times on the order of up to a week, the actual talk time (by which they usually mean when data is being transmitted) is usually only a few hours.

        Ok, I'll bite. Then why isn't this happening with fixed wireless? LocustWorld is the only semi-commercial multi-hop fixed wireless system I've heard of, and I've yet to fi
    • I went to a fascinating presentation by David [sunspot.net] Dalrymple [relativelyyours.com], a 10 year old in college, that was discussing a protocol he had developed regarding this very concept.

  • In Democratic America. . . (Score:4, Funny)

    by kfg ( 145172 ) on Sunday October 05, 2003 @11:33PM (#7141186)
    Smart sensors watch YOU!

    No, wait. That can't be right. Let me try again.

    In Soviet Russia smart sensors didn't EXIST!

    No, that doesn't quite seem right either.

    Wait, wait, let me try again. I'll get it sooner or later.

    KFG
  • Well, i would say it fits very well the spirit behind the Web: Sharing information/data so that everyone can bennefit from it.
  • does anyone get the same feeling reading stuff like this that you get when you read writing from like the 1930's that says that we may one day visit the moon?
  • Future: Imagine a volunteer force of 100000000 people trying to find and collect the sensors of the previous generation, which is interfering with a newer generation of the global data collection system.
  • "Yes, now there is a god".
    From The Answer by Frederick Brown (1954).
  • Why did I see this and suddenly think "Hmmm... isn't this a step towards putting the machines in charge - by letting them see everything and linking it all together...?"

    Now what did I do with my tin foil beanie?
  • Chemical companies are very slowly starting to look at this. It is called MSPC, multivariate statistical process control. Combine all thermometer readings, pumps, heaters, chemical and physico-chemical analyses in one big "understanding" of your process. These models are hower f*cking difficult to validate, and are often sensitive to the error on one sensor. So how are these dudes going to check the accuracy of all their sensors? It will be difficult to spot the butterfly causing the hurricanes if th
    • Reliabilty is an issue. Otherwise false alarm might sound every minute. And it can be a source of abuse.

      The alarm of a local ATM machine rang several times in the past weeks, sometimes rang off in the middle of the night annoying the neighborhood. The dumb serviceman finally switched the damn things off. Then one day early 5am in the morning. Some guys drove a truck by and hauled the ATM machine away.

      Now imagine thousands of these sensors giving false alarm.

    • Depending on context, difficulty of 'validation' can vary widely from quite easy to far too difficult.

      Here is an outline for how to make 'validation' easy:

      Generally we are dealing with systems that cannot be predicted exactly in advance. Here our usual best approach is to be 'probabilistic', and for this a good first step is to look for cases of 'independence'. While there are statistical 'tests' for independence, usually we believe in independence based on what we know about the system broadly and m

  • My $0.02 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mcrbids ( 148650 ) on Monday October 06, 2003 @03:02AM (#7141856) Journal
    1) It's not the "web", it's the "Internet" - unless you plan on making everything a bunch of HTTP servers?

    2) Having a video feed, and knowing what the feed is of, are two very different things. Knowing the IP address will only be marginally helpful, especially with DHCP or PPPOE in use in *alot* of cases.

    3) So, you have a picture of some guy's bedroom. It's 3 blocks from a commited crime. And...?

    4) Also, remember that power corrupts... We need to ensure that the proper checks are in place [wired.com] before we start trusting this technology.

    5) Remember TIA [epic.org]? Co-ordinating data from so many disparate sources is much more daunting than it seems, however sexy it sounds.

    C'mon!
    • 1) It's not the "web", it's the "Internet" - unless you plan on making everything a bunch of HTTP servers?


      The World Wide Web is not _the_ web either (popularised contraction aside). This is a web of sensors (aka The Sensor Web) that operates on the internet, I didn't see any implied correlation to the WWW.

  • Vinge's Localizers (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sane? ( 179855 ) on Monday October 06, 2003 @03:23AM (#7141917)
    I'm surprised that no one has referenced the localiser concept of Verner Vinge yet. If you want to understand just how powerful this idea can be, for good and ill, I suggest reading some of his books. The capacity for monitoring the environment and providing networked hopping bandwidth is tempered by the capacity for total 27x7x365 big brother. This is an old concept, but no less powerful for it.
  • It could be a great idea, useful and helpful, However, I suspect that (dons tin foil hat ) the powers that be (read: goverments/large corporations/ your choice of Overlord) will deem it far too unsafe to let the rest of us see whats ACTUALY happening, and will limit full access to those who can be trusted to tell the truth the 'correct' way,.... weapons of mass deception anyone?

  • Vernor Vinge comes to life? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kris ( 824 ) <kris-slashdot@koehntopp.de> on Monday October 06, 2003 @04:30AM (#7142066) Homepage
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812 536355/qid=1065428724
    "A Deepness in the Sky"

    In this prequel to "A Fire Upon the Deep", Vernor Vinge tells us the story of Pham Nuwen and what he did before his journey into the galactic core.

    A big part of this story deals with the concept of nanosensor dust that is sprayed into the atmosphere of a space station to create an airborne sensor web for total control of all proceedings in that station. At least that is what the podmaster dictatorship believes. But Pham, who gave the secret of the sensor dust to the podmasters, has other plans.

    If you want to read something about the possible or imagined consequences of a sensor web as part of the setting of a truly outstanding science fiction story, this book is for you.

    Kristian

  • a modeler's critique (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mikey573 ( 137933 ) * on Monday October 06, 2003 @08:05AM (#7142606) Homepage

    A sensor web is an exciting prospect, but data accuracy remains important consideration, and "full-dimensional" coverage is doubtful to happen.

    As an air pollution dispersion modeler, I frequently use meteorological data collected across the US by the National Weather Service [noaa.gov] and NCDC [noaa.gov]. The current array of measurement sites provides an incomplete picture of micrometeorological events (small scale), and of course, the more sensors available the better, right?

    Well, the biggest issue I have to deal with is data quality/accuracy. It doesn't seem that accuracy is addressed at all in the article. I guess if you have lots of sensors, you can cross-compare results from sensors not too far apart...

    I object though to the claim that any sensor web will provide "full-dimensional" coverage of the earth. In the air, we only know about the upper atmosphere generally through the sparse, limited use of radiosondes (weather balloons that track back results via radio and can also be tracked from the ground with radar to figure out wind speed and direction). Unless we start seeing swarms of self-propelled flying sensors (a'la "Batteries Not Included" [imdb.com]), I don't see "full-dimensional" coverage of let alone the atmosphere on the earth. Perhaps the author means "all variables of interest" but the term, "full-dimensional", but it still sounds like an exaggerated claim.

    • I tend to agree - it will be those mundane issues, like providing power, keeping the sensors calibrated and making sure the sensor / environment interface (ie: - interferences - like boundry layer affects, bio-slime, air borne films and dust, chemical plating, etc., etc.) that will make this system hard to keep stable (even though redundancy and massiveness will help).

      And then when the big sensor net is telling us to do something - AT ONCE - we'll be thinking ... "do I really trust that those sensors are t
  • I don't care to send data like the location of my computer or the temperature outside my window, but this seems a too "amateur" approach to data collect.
    For sure *I* don't have enough money to afford a professional weather/pollution/everything else sensor.
    So, who pay for sensors? Of course who has the money...
    I bet with a Microsoft-driven network to monitor temperature, prudent people starts to wear swimsuits under anoraks.

  • "..the essential concepts of the original and dense article."

    I must be missing something - why does a short (2 page?) article need summarising into a mere 1 and a bit pages.

    Mind you - there is always a real piece of work like TinyOS to look at.

    ps. TinyOS has some real articles about it - ones with abstracts and long words. Probably needs a summary or two.

  • Too Much Left Out (Score:2, Insightful)

    by slashdotfox ( 713841 )

    The description "The Smart Sensor Web" concentrates on 'plumbing', that is, just getting data. The description is too light on the rest that is needed for real usefulness.

    The description appears to fall into an old trap, the promise that with all the data we have 'everything'. Yes, getting the data is usually necessary. However, the data alone is rarely sufficient and, thus, not yet 'everything'. So, we also need (1) dictionary of the data, that is, what data is where (e.g., what Google does for the

  • I'm aware of this concept for years. You should all read "A Deepness In The Sky" by Vernor Vinge, an excellent science-fiction book already reviewd by someone at Slashdot. Have fun! ;)

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