Wireless Sensing Systems: From ecosystems to human systems

Dr. Deborah Estrin

Computer Sciences Department

UCLA

    Miniaturization and Moore’s law has enabled us to combine sensing, computation and wireless communication in integrated, low-power devices, and to embed networks of these devices in the physical world. By placing sensing devices up close to the physical phenomena we are now able to study details in space and time that were previously unobservable. Looking back over the past few years we have made significant progress toward the vision of programmable, multi-modal, multi-scale observatories. We have made our greatest strides in these applications using: judicious application of server-side and in situ processing, mobility at multiple scales, and multi-scale data and models as context for in situ measurements,. We are now applying these lessons learned and technical approaches to human as well as natural systems, in particular by exploring use of the installed base of image, location, and acoustic sensors that we all carry around in our pockets or on our belts—mobile phones. In this talk I will draw upon experiences with pilots and prototypes at CENS.