Abstract
The understanding of complex environmental phenomena, such as deforestation and epidemics, requires observations at multiple scales. This scale dependency is not handled well by today’s rather technical sensor definitions. Geosensor networks are normally defined as distributed ad-hoc wireless networks of computing platforms serving to monitor phenomena in geographic space. Such definitions also do not admit animals as sensors. Consequently, they exclude human sensors, which are the key to volunteered geographic information, and they fail to support connections between phenomena observed at multiple scales. We propose definitions of sensors as information sources at multiple aggregation levels, relating physical stimuli to observations. An algebraic formalization shows their behavior as well as their aggregations and generalizations. It is intended as a basis for defining consistent application programming interfaces to sense the environment at multiple scales of observations and with different types of sensors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Shepherd, D., Kumar, S.: Microsensor Applications. In: Distributed Sensor Networks. Chapman & Hall, Boca Raton (2005)
Iyengar, S., Brooks, R. (eds.): Distributed Sensor Networks, 1st edn., December 2005. Chapman & Hall / Crc Computer and Information Science (2005)
Markham, A., Wilkinson, A.: A Biomimetic Ranking System for Energy Constrained Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks. In: Southern African Telecommunications, Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), Mauritius, September 9-13 (2007)
Reis, I.A., Camara, G., Assuncao, R., Monteiro, A.: Suppressing Temporal Data in Sensor Networks using a Scheme Robust to Aberrant Readings. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks (to be published, 2009)
Hart, J., Martinez, K.: Environmental Sensor Networks: A revolution in the earth system science? Earth-Science Reviews 78, 177–191 (2006)
Nittel, S., Stefanidis, A.: GeoSensor Networks and Virtual GeoReality. In: GeoSensors Networks. CRC, Boca Raton (2005)
Botts, M.: OpenGIS Sensor Model Language (SensorML) Implementation Specification (2007)
Cox, S.: Observations and Measurements - Part 1 - Observation schema (2007)
Goodchild, M.: Citizens as Sensors: the World of Volunteered Geography. GeoJournal 69(4), 211–221 (2007)
Akyildiz, I., Tommaso, M., Kaushik, C.: A Survey on Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks. Computer Networks 51(4), 921–960 (2007)
Sastry, S., Iyengar, S.: A Taxonomy of Distributed Sensor Networks. In: Distributed Sensor Networks, pp. 29–43. Routledge (2004)
Sgroi, M., Wolisz, A., Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, A., Rabaey, J.: A Service-Based Universal Application Interface for Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks. In: Weber, W., Rabaey, J., Aarts, E. (eds.) Ambient intelligence. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Akkaya, K., Younis, M.: A Survey on Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks. Ad Hoc Networks 3(3), 325–349 (2005)
Lin, S., Kalogeraki, V., Gunopulos, D., Lonardi, S.: Efficient Information Compression in Sensor Networks. International Journal of Sensor Networks 1(3/4), 229–240 (2006)
Kulik, L., Tanin, E., Umer, M.: Efficient Data Collection and Selective Queries in Sensor Networks. In: Nittel, S., Labrinidis, A., Stefanidis, A. (eds.) GSN 2006. LNCS, vol. 4540, pp. 25–44. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Worboys, M., Duckham, M.: Monitoring Qualitative Spatiotemporal Change for Geosensor Networks. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 20, 1087–1108 (2006)
Reichenbach, F., Born, A., Nash, E., Strehlow, C., Timmermann, D., Bill, R.: Improving Localization in Geosensor Networks through Use of Sensor Measurement Data. In: Cova, T.J., Miller, H.J., Beard, K., Frank, A.U., Goodchild, M.F. (eds.) GIScience 2008. LNCS, vol. 5266, pp. 261–273. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Jung, Y., Nittel, S.: Geosensor Data Abstraction for Environmental Monitoring Application. In: Cova, T.J., Miller, H.J., Beard, K., Frank, A.U., Goodchild, M.F. (eds.) GIScience 2008. LNCS, vol. 5266, pp. 168–180. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Botts, M., Percivall, G., Reed, C., Davidson, J.: OGC Sensor Web Enablement: Overview And High Level Architecture. Technical report, Open Geospatial Consortium (2007)
Sheth, A., Henson, C., Sahoo, S.: Semantic Sensor Web. IEEE Internet Computing, 78–83 (2008)
Jirka, S., Bröring, A., Stasch, C.: Discovery Mechanisms for the Sensor Web. Sensors 9 (in press, 2009)
Hornsby, K., King, K.: Linking geosensor network data and ontologies to support transportation modeling. In: Nittel, S., Labrinidis, A., Stefanidis, A. (eds.) GSN 2006. LNCS, vol. 4540, pp. 191–209. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)
Probst, F.: Ontological Analysis of Observations and Measurements. In: Raubal, M., Miller, H.J., Frank, A.U., Goodchild, M.F. (eds.) GIScience 2006. LNCS, vol. 4197, pp. 304–320. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Zhang, P., Sadler, C., Lyon, S., Martonosi, M.: Hardware Design Experiences in ZebraNet. In: 2nd international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 227–238. ACM, New York (2004)
Masolo, C., Borgo, S., Gangemi, A., Guarino, N., Oltramari, A.: WonderWeb deliverable D18 ontology library. Technical report, IST Project 2001-33052 WonderWeb: Ontology Infrastructure for the Semantic Web (2003)
Hansman, J.: Characteristics of Instrumentation. In: Measurement, Instrumentation, And Sensors Handbook. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton (1999)
Regis, L., Monteiro, A., Melo-Santos, M., Silveira, J., Furtado, A., Acioli, R., Santos, G., Nakazawa, M., Carvalho, M., Ribeiro, P., Souza, W.: Developing New Approaches for Detecting and Preventing Aedes Aegypti Population Outbreaks: Basis for Surveillance, Alert and Control System. Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 103, 50–59 (2008)
Jirka, S., Bröring, A., Stasch, C.: Applying OGC Sensor Web Enablement to Risk Monitoring and Disaster Management. In: GSDI 11 World Conference, Rotterdam, Netherlands (June 2009)
Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R., Vlissides, J.: Design Patterns: Elements of Resusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley Professional, Reading (1995)
Kuhn, W.: Semantic Reference Systems. International Journal of Geographic Information Science 17(5), 405–409 (2003)
Scheider, S., Janowicz, K., Kuhn, W.: Grounding geographic categories in the meaningful environment, http://musil.uni-muenster.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/groundingcategoriesinme_final.pdf (forthcoming, 2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Stasch, C., Janowicz, K., Bröring, A., Reis, I., Kuhn, W. (2009). A Stimulus-Centric Algebraic Approach to Sensors and Observations. In: Trigoni, N., Markham, A., Nawaz, S. (eds) GeoSensor Networks. GSN 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5659. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02903-5_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02903-5_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-02902-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-02903-5
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)