Human As Sensor

This is a keynote presented by Prof. Alex Paul Pentland on SenSys 2010.

Download video: http://replay-progressive.ethz.ch/h264-medium.http/10.3930/ETHZ/AV-1f61f9b0-b5ec-4e10-9572-dd544974178d/20101103_SenSys_Keynote-dm.m4v

More info here.

EWSN Call for Posters and Demos

The European Conference on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN 2011), to be held in Bonn (Germany), February 23-25 2011, is now accepting poster and demo proposals!

Call for Posters:
The poster session at EWSN provides a forum for researchers to present their work and receive feedback from experts attending the conference. The areas of interest are the same of the main track. They explicitly encourage submissions from students!

Call for Demos:
The demonstration session at EWSN is typically one of the highlights of the conference. If you are a systems researcher who is bored with producing slides, and you would rather show off great code, working systems, useful tools, crazy flying objects, new platforms, and any other technologies related to EWSN, then the demo session is the place for you! Submissions from industry and universities are encouraged!

Submission instructions are at the EWSN website.

Deadline is December 17, 2010!

For further information, please contact the EWSN Poster/Demo chairs Luca Mottola (SICS) and Daniel Minder (University of Duisburg-Essen) at
ewsn2011-poster-demo [AT] nes.uni-due.de.

REALWSN 2010: Call for Posters and Demos

The Fourth Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor Networks will be held on 16-17 December, 2010 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Authors are invited to submit poster and demo abstracts (4 pages, Springer format, 9 or 10 point font size). Accepted abstracts will be included in the proceedings published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).

Posters should demonstrate early work in areas of interest similar to those listed in the technical call for papers. Good posters describe exciting ideas for which some preliminary results are available.

Demonstrations should showcase innovative research and applications related to the technical calls for papers. The initial submission should include an appendix describing as detailed as possible what you intend to show. The appendix should be removed for the final submissions.

Important dates:

* Electronic submissions due: September 16, 2010
* Notification of acceptance: September 26, 2010
* Camera-ready copy due: October 8, 2010
* Workshop: 16-17 December, 2010

More info will be available here.

Second International Conference on CPS

The IEEE/ACM Second International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS) will be held in conjunction with CPS Week, on April 11-14, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Technical Committee on Real-Time Systems (TCRTS) ACM Special Interest Group on Embedded Systems (SIGBED).

Cyber-physical systems are systems with a tight coupling of the cyber aspects of computing and communications with the physical aspects of dynamics and engineering that must abide by the laws of physics. The objective of this conference is to be a primary forum for reporting state-of-the-art advances and innovations in theoretical principles, tools, applications, systems infrastructure, and testbeds for cyber-physical systems.

Contributions should emphasize the cross-cutting, system-wide themes. Sectors of applicability include, but not be limited to, transportation (automotive, aerospace, marine, rail), SCADA systems (electricity generation including smart grids and the like, other utilities), smart physical infrastructure (smart bridges, buildings and highways), energy efficiency (energy-aware buildings), environmental monitoring, defense systems, intelligent medical devices, tele-operations and robotics.

Submissions must be a maximum of 10 pages, in 2-column format, and use font sizes of no less than 10 pt. Instructions for submission can be found at the conference site.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Theoretical foundations of CPS
- Modeling, Analysis and Synthesis Techniques
- Architectures for Cyber-Physical Systems
- Building blocks for Cyber-Physical Systems
- Systems Abstractions, Services and OS Support
- Evaluation approaches and metrics
- Novel CPS applications
- Detailed Case Studies

Important Dates:

Submission Deadline : November 7, 2010
Acceptance Decisions : January 5, 2011
Final Manuscript : January 28, 2011

WINSYS 2011

WINSYS is part of ICETE, the International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications
Registration to WINSYS allows free access to all other ICETE conferences

Important Dates

Regular Paper Submission: February 3, 2011
Authors Notification (regular papers): April 16, 2011
Final Regular Paper Submission and Registration: May 5, 2011

Conference Areas

• › Wireless Information Networks
• › Wireless Networking Technologies
• › Mobile Software and Services

Program Co-chairs

Rafael Caldeirinha, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal
Mohammad S. Obaidat, Monmouth University, U.S.A.

UM engineer builds bridge sensors to give early warnings

The device that Mehdi Kalantari hopes will revolutionize monitoring of the structural integrity of bridges around the world is about as small and flat as a credit card and is powered by the sun, by ambient light or even by stray radio waves it can pick out of the atmosphere.

An Iranian immigrant and electrical engineer at the University of Maryland, College Park, Kalantari has devised what he calls a lightweight, low-power, wireless sensor that he hopes will detect weaknesses in bridges and other infrastructure before they can turn into calamities such as the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007.

If they work as imagined, the devices would detect anomalies in the structure of even the most inaccessible parts of bridges and send alerts via cellular frequencies to its human masters. Among the things it would measure would be stress loads, vibration, temperature and the creation and growth of cracks.

More info here.

Wireless Sensing Showcase 2010

Early prototyping has proven to be an essential methodology to evaluate wireless sensing systems. Furthermore, it offers an excellent way to assess the applicability of the technology against real user requirements and to promote its market adoption. Building on the last two years’ successful events, the Wireless Sensing Interest subGroup (WiSIG) of the Electronics, Sensors, Photonics Knowledge Transfer Network (ESP KTN) is organising a Demonstrator Showcase to provide an opportunity for industry and academia to display technology, platforms, and realistic applications of wireless sensing. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of the current state of the art and encourage future collaborations among the exhibitors and attendees.

The Wireless Sensing Demonstrator Showcase invites innovative demonstrations from industry and academia. Demos will be classified into two categories R&D systems and Commercial Products. The event will be hosted by the Sensing Technology 2010 Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham UK on Tuesday 28th September

Both wireless sensing systems developed as ‘instruments to enable scientific investigation’ and also ‘as solutions to known problems’. Demonstrators need to be end-to-end systems with achievements beyond the state of the art at one or more of the following levels: physical level, sensing level, energy harvesting, power management, data fusion, middleware, communications, information extraction, and user interfaces.

They are particularly encouraging demonstrators in the areas of body sensor networks, environmental monitoring, industrial monitoring and control, security and surveillance as well as assisted living. The demo proposals will be reviewed by a committee and the delegates of the Sensing Technology 2010 Exhibition. The ‘Best Demo Award’ will be awarded in each of the two categories based upon both the technical and innovation contribution.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: Sept 1, 2010
Acceptance notification: Sept 10, 2010
Camera-ready deadline: Sept 20, 2010
Demo Registration deadline: Sept 15, 2010
Showcase date: Sept 28, 2010

Registration and more info here

SecIoT 2010

The 1st Workshop on the Security of the Internet of Things

Tokyo, Japan – November 29, 2010, in conjunction with Internet of Things 2010

Important Dates

Paper Submission due: 10 September 2010
Acceptance notification: 5 October 2010
Final papers due: 12 October 2010
Workshop date: 29 November 2010

Before the Internet of Things (IoT) vision takes its first steps, it is essential to consider the security implications of billions of intelligent things cooperating with other real and virtual entities over the Internet. In fact, we need to plan well in advance what kind of technological mechanisms, protocols and standard infrastructures we will need in order to protect the IoT.

Consequently, the main goal of this workshop is to spark debate on how to deal with the different security challenges that are related to the IoT. We aim to take a holistic point of view on this matter, giving importance to both the technologies that enable the IoT (such as Wireless Sensor Networks) and their interrelations.

Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version for possible publication in the “Protecting the Internet of Things” special issue of Wiley’s Security and Communication Networks Journal, which is indexed in almost all important technical journal index systems, such as ISI, SCI, EI, SCOPUS, etc.

More information about this workshop is available here

MidSens paper deadline extension

The fifth international workshop on Middleware Tools, Services and Run-Time Support for Sensor Networks (MidSens’10) will be co-located with Middleware 2010 (November 29th – December 3rd, 2010) in Bangalore, India.
The paper submission deadline has been extended to August 15th 2010.

See the submission page for details.

ACM BuildSys paper deadline extended

The submission deadline of ACM BuildSys 2010: 2nd ACM Workshop On Embedded Sensing Systems For Energy-Efficiency In Buildings has been extended to Aug 12th, 2010

Workshop Location:
In conjunction with ACM SenSys, Zurich, Switzerland – November 2, 2010.

Publisher:
Papers will be published and archived by ACM.

Important dates:
* Submission deadline: 12 August 2010 (Extended)
* Notification of acceptance: 7 September 2010
* Camera Ready Due: 25 September 2010
* Workshop date: 2 November 2010

More information are available in the workshop website.

New Wireless Sensor Network Technology Trends

Bluetooth Low Energy Forecast to Dominate Wireless Sensor Network Market

A new report evaluates the opportunity for 802.15.4, EnOcean, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wavenis, Low Power Wi-Fi, and ZigBee chipsets. The report includes a five-year forecast of dominant technologies.

The newly updated study, “WTRS Wireless Sensor Network Technology Trends, Q2 2010”, reviews and analyzes the available and proposed technology solutions competing for dominance in the wireless sensor network segment.

This report covers emerging Wireless Sensor and Control Network technologies and protocols including IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee, Bluetooth Low Energy, EnOcean, Z-Wave, and Low Power WiFi.

The report tracks the formation of industry alliances and SIGs, development of standards, analyzes the potential market opportunities for component OEMs, describes initial versus long-range drivers in the market, and analyzes potential partnership opportunities and existing alliances.

The report is an in-depth assessment and analysis of chipsets and includes extensive analysis of the various sensor and M2M network layers. It is also and above all an analysis of potential markets, an evaluation of the participating OEMs, and a review of strategic partnerships and of industry trends.
The report also details sales volume, unit shipments, and average selling price by vertical market segment as well as by geography, all segmented into three global GDP growth scenarios.

“Bluetooth Low Energy will be a significant contributor to the overall Wireless Sensor Network market, representing nearly half of all shipments in 2015”, said Kirsten West, Principal Analyst with WTRS. “Bluetooth Low Energy is designed to compete with protocols like ZigBee in applications which require infrequent and short bursts of data communication. The advantage to this new protocol is that it is totally optimized for low power battery operation.”

The Wireless Sensor Network Technology Trends Report analyzes and forecasts the market for wireless sensor networks. The report includes a thorough evaluation of emerging Wireless Sensor Network technologies and associated software including ZigBee, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wavenis, IEEE 802.15.4, Low Power WiFi, EnOcean, and others.

The report also

- analyzes the potential market opportunities for Wireless Sensor Networks
- examines near versus long-range drivers impacting the market
- tracks the activities of industry alliances, strategic partnerships, and SIGs
- contains an in-depth assessment and analysis of chipset features
- evaluates energy harvesting technologies employed in wireless sensor networks

The report provides 5-year forecasts of dominant emerging wireless sensor network technologies that detail sales volume, unit shipments, and average selling price by vertical market segment as well as by geography. Applications forecast include Smart Metering, Home Area Network, Residential Health, Building Automation, Energy Management, Facility Medical, Industrial Automation, Consumer, Medical, Agriculture, Security, and Transportation. Historical price and volume data is also included.

Products Mentioned:

Low Energy Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.4, Enocean, Low Power WiFI, ZigBee, INSTEON


Product samples

Samples for this product is available. Please Login/Register to download these samples.

ACM BuildSys 2010

The 2nd ACM Workshop On Embedded Sensing Systems For Energy-Efficiency In Buildings and Surroundings will be held in conjunction with ACM SenSys 2010, in Zurich, Switzerland – November 2, 2010.

The World is increasingly experiencing a strong need for energy consumption reduction and a need for efficient use of scarce natural resources. Official studies report that buildings account for the largest portion of World’s energy expenditure and have the fastest growth rate. Clearly, energy saving strategies that target energy use in buildings and surroundings can have a major impact worldwide, driving the current energy market toward self-sufficiency and self-sustainability. This calls for effective techniques and methods that enable accurate carbon foot printing, monitoring and control of appliance activity, energy auditing and management in buildings and surroundings and the generation of energy awareness.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) plays a key role in enabling energy-saving systems in buildings and surrounding spaces by providing a reliable, cost-effective and extensible solution that can be placed in existing as well as new structures and be controlled via the Internet. In fact, WSNs allow the monitoring of the energy consumption in near-real time and, as such, they are an essential tool in the control loop that will be used in future structures for the generation and usage of diverse types of energy.

Following the success of the past edition of the workshop, BuildSys 2010 focuses on the intersection between WSNs and energy in buildings by merging experts in the WSN domain and experts in the Building/Energy community in order to identify innovative solutions which achieve the broad goal of energy-reduction.

CFP and more available here

Important dates

Submission deadline: 30 July 2010
Notification of acceptance: 7 September 2010
Camera Ready Due: 25 September 2010
Workshop date: 2 November 2010

Tips For Writing Technical Papers!

Check the following links to get details about technical paper writing :

http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWsections.html
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~widom/paper-writing.html
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/abstracts.html

http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/Scott/DoughtyPublish.html

Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing (ISSNIP 2010)

The Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing (ISSNIP 2010) will be held in Brisbane, Australia in December.

ISSNIP is organized as a number of independent symposia that discuss recent results Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing. This year ISSNIP will be co-located with e-Science 2010.

They are currently calling for symposia, workshops and tutorials. Symposium and Tutorial Proposals should come by 15 May.

Paper Submission Deadline is : August 1, 2010

Website: http://www.issnip.org/2010/issnip.pdf

Paper Submission on WMSN(Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks)

Papers are invited on topics mentioned :

• Innovative technological platforms for Secure WMSNs;

• Advanced monitoring applications based on Secure WMSNs;

• New analytical methodologies and tools to design Secure WMSNs; QoE in Secure WMSNs
  

• evaluation of Secure WMSNs with particular attention to achievable performance bounds on QoE, Energy efficiency, and Security;
  

• algorithms and protocols for Secure WMSNs (Physical, MAC, Network, Transport layers, and Cross layer stacks);
  

• Security in Multimedia encoding, compression, and aggregation algorithms for WMSNs;

• Encryption techniques for multimedia contents in WMSNs;

• Security and Privacy policies, Trust management, authentication and data integrity in WMSNs;

• Secure Localization in WMSNs;

• Scalability and Fairness in Secure WMSNs;

• Joint Security, Multimedia Coding and Communication techniques in WMSNs.

Submission deadline: 15th of June, 2010

Detecting Forest Fires using Wireless Sensor Networks with Waspmote

The first real deployment of a Wireless Sensor Network in order to detect forest fires has been performed in Asturias (North of Spain). The system uses Waspmote along with CO, CO2, humidity and temperature sensors included in the Gas Sensor board. 40 nodes were deployed in 2009 and 50 more will be installed in 2010. The article includes a video of the installation recorded by the local TV.

Read the entire article here or watch a video here.

Sensor Interface

April 13,2010

The WiSI wireless sensor interface from Rugid Computer Inc., Olympia, WA, is a wireless, self-powered device that combines a radio and DA and control and is designed for rapid deployment to monitor and control remote sensors. There are three low-power models: one with an integrated solar panel and maintenance-free energy storage that can communicate for up to 1 week without sunlight; the other two run from an external 12 VDC power source. The WiSI comes standard with a 2.4 GHz radio, antenna or RP-SMA connector, 4 analog inputs, 4 digital inputs, 4 digital outputs, and 5 and 18 VDC instrument supplies that can source up to 25 mA for powering several sensors or a 4–20 mA loop. Standard features include a 0.25µA supply for powering RTDs and an RS-232 port.Wireless Sensor Interface from Rugid ComputerRugid Computer Inc. April 4, 2010
The WiSI wireless sensor interface from Rugid Computer Inc., Olympia, WA, is a wireless, self-powered device that combines a radio and DA and control and is designed for rapid deployment to monitor and control remote sensors. There are three low-power models: one with an integrated solar panel and maintenance-free energy storage that can communicate for up to 1 week without sunlight; the other two run from an external 12 VDC power source. The WiSI comes standard with a 2.4 GHz radio, antenna or RP-SMA connector, 4 analog inputs, 4 digital inputs, 4 digital outputs, and 5 and 18 VDC instrument supplies that can source up to 25 mA for powering several sensors or a 4–20 mA loop. Standard features include a 0.25µA supply for powering RTDs and an RS-232 port.

Wireless sensor tags create an `instrumentation cloud`

April 13th, 2010

A US company has developed a wireless sensor card that introduces a new concept for performing measurement and analysis, known as the “instrumentation cloud”. Cores Electronic’s Tag4M WiFi sensor tag no longer relies on software running on a specific PC. Instead, it transmits data the Internet and uses Web pages as “instruments” that can be accessed by any device that that can surf the Web, including mobile phones.

According to Cores’ president, Marius Ghercioiu, the tag “heralds a new way of collecting real-world data where we are throwing off the chains that bind us to specific hardware and software. Most wireless sensor units currently on the market are designed to work in local mode with a computer running a specific software application. In contrast, we designed the Tag4M to interface with a Web page, which can be hosted on any Web-enabled hardware, whether in your pocket or across the country.

More info here.

DCOSS 2010 Call for Poster and Demonstrations

DCOSS 2010 will feature a poster/demo session that provides a forum for distributed computing and sensor network researchers and developers from academia, industry, and government to interact with and explore the latest research results. Towards this goal, DCOSS 2010 solicits posters and
demonstrations presenting recent original results or ongoing research in the general area of sensor networks. Authors are invited to submit interesting
results on all aspects of sensor networks, including algorithms, protocols, systems and applications.

Important Dates:
Abstracts Submission Deadline : April 26, 2010
Notification of Acceptance : May 3, 2010
Conference Dates : June 21 – 23, 2010

More info here.

SENSEAPP 2010

The the fourth edition of the workshop is to be held on 11-14th October 2010 in Denver, Colorado, after successful previous editions.

SenseApp 2010, the Fifth IEEE International Workshop on Practical Issues in Building Sensor Network Applications, will be a one-day workshop, held in conjunction with the IEEE Conference on Local Comupter Networks (LCN 2010). The workshop aims at bringing together researchers from academia and industry to showcase their work and obtain feedback. We expect the workshop to act as a forum for the sensor network research community to discuss open issues, novel solutions and the future development of wireless sensor networks in general.

More info avaialble here, and also the CFP is here (pdf)

New G-Node mote announced

March 8, 2010 WNA Amritapuri Campus

SOWNet Technologies has been using TinyOS in production for a while now, and they’ve just released a new development platform, the G-Node. It has a CC1101 radio (868 MHz) and an MSP430F2418 microcontroller. The platform isn’t in the TinyOS repository, but they have put together quite a nice development kit which includes a complete TinyOS 2.0 toolchain.

Together with the Technical University of Delft, they’ve also designed a modular test bed with sensor emulation: each test bed unit consists of a mini-PC with an I/O board with dedicated SPI/I2C/UART/ADC connections for up to four nodes.

You can find more information here.

Wi-Fi for Trains!!!

March 8, 2010

Amtrak has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for a communications platformincluding passenger Wi-Fi in its trains all over the US. Amtrak will issue another RFQ shortly after this one to support automated on-board signage, announcements and end-of-car displays that use the communications platform. Then it will issue a national task order RFP. Below is an excerpt from the RFQ.

* * * * * * * *

1. Purpose of Request for Qualifications (RFQ)

Amtrak is seeking to identify a complete technology solution that will serve as an onboard communications platform (the “Platform”). The Platform will include a robust, self-healing, self-configuring onboard network and associated equipment that forms the foundation to support two primary services: (1) Wi-Fi for passengers and (2) a secure Wi-Fi channel for Amtrak business needs to support on-board transactions (such as ticketing or on-board sales). In addition, the system will be capable of supporting automated onboard electronic informational displays and announcements, content caching and delivery (e.g., for custom content as well as audio and video entertainment), and other business services.

Amtrak envisions that the Platform will include at its core a wireless and wired infrastructure, a communications control unit, and an off-board multi-technology communications system. The Platform will be supported through a hardened data center that will be capable of real-time monitoring and reporting on the Platform and related services.

The established Platform will be used as the basis for an ongoing national standard for all of the trains in the Amtrak fleet and, at Amtrak Rail Partners’ option, for their fleets as well. Hereinafter, Amtrak and Rail Partners shall be collectively referred to as Amtrak.

1.1 Selection Process

The selection process includes three elements: two RFQs followed by a National Request for Proposal (RFP). Amtrak will use the RFQs to select core national technology standards which will subsequently be procured and implemented through the National RFP, as follows:

• RFQ 1: Communications Platform, including Passenger Wi-Fi: This first RFQ seeks responses from vendors for the on-board Communications Platform, including: (a) onboard train communications network, (b) Wi-Fi for passenger and business use; and (c) content caching and support for future applications as noted under RFQ 2. Requirements for RFQ 1 are detailed in Sections 2 and 4.

• RFQ 2: Onboard Train Information Systems (OTIS): The second RFQ, which will shortly follow the first, will seek qualifications from vendors for OTIS. The OTIS will utilize the Communications Platform identified in RFQ 1 to support automated on-board signage and announcements and end-of-car displays.

• RFP for Solutions Implementation: Once the core technologies are identified through the RFQ process, a national task order RFP will be issued which will establish master contracts with a series of installers who will, with participation of the core technology vendors, equip specific trains with the respective Communications Platform and OTIS systems.

At Amtrak’s option, the RFP phase will include one or two RFPs. If two RFPs are issued, each RFP will correspond to either RFQ1 or RFQ2. If only one RFP is issued, that RFP will encompass all features of the proposed on-board technologies. The RFP will result in a selection of a set of vendors qualified to work on a task-order basis to install, operate and maintain these systems for Amtrak across the United States.

Soon, you'll be able to surf the web at the speed of light!

Tue, Mar 2 04:45 PM

Washington, March 2 (ANI): Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a new infrared laser made from germanium that operates at room temperature, which has made light-speed computing come one step closer to reality.

The research removes the cryogenic cooling systems previously needed for infrared lasers and could lead to powerful computer chips that operate at the speed of light.

"Using a germanium laser as a light source, you could communicate at very high data rates at very low power," said Jurgen Michel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who developed the new germanium laser.

"Eventually, you could have the computing power of today's supercomputers inside a laptop," he said.

The creation of a new laser, even one based on germanium, is not newsworthy; more than 15,000 different lasers, some of which use germanium, have been created since the 1950s.

What makes this particular germanium laser unique is that it creates an infrared beam at room temperature.

Until now infrared germanium lasers required expensive cryogenic cooling systems to operate. The new germanium laser operates at room temperature.

To create the germanium laser, the scientists take a six-inch, silvery-gray disk of silicon and spray it with a thin film of germanium.

These same disks are actually used to produce chips in today's computers.

An electrically powered, room-temperature, infrared laser for laptop computers is still years away, however, cautioned Michel.

If and when those laptops do arrive, they will be powerful - more powerful in fact than even today's supercomputers.

The battery that powers the laptop won't necessarily last any longer, but the power it does hold will make calculations orders of magnitude faster than today.

"We need high-density, low-power solutions," said Kock.

Computer chips are constantly getting smaller and smaller, but they are approaching the fundamental limits of electron-based computing.

Light-based computing is one option to improve the speed and power of computers.

"Germanium-based optical computing is an especially attractive material for optical computing because it wouldn't require any change to the existing computer chip industry," Kock said.

The same machines that use silicon could also use germanium to make future chips. (ANI)

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