Wireless securityFirm pushes for open wireless sensor data
As wireless sensors are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in electrical grids, homes, and businesses, electronic enthusiasts and programmers believe that this data could be used to create a host of new devices with practical uses; making sensor data freely available allows engineers to build software and apps that monitor data in real time for things like local radiation levels, water quality, or even your home’s energy consumption; leading the push for open sensor data is U.K. based Pachube (pronounced “patchbay”) which has developed a network of sensors that collect six million points of data per day; the majority of sensor information is currently encrypted and therefore inaccessible
One company is hoping to encourage firms to make their sensor data freely available to encourage the creation of open source software and apps that monitor data in real time for things like local radiation levels, water quality, or even your home’s energy consumption.
As wireless sensors are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in electrical grids, homes, and businesses, electronic enthusiasts and programmers believe that this data could be used to create a host of new devices with practical uses.
Leading the push for open sensor data is U.K. based Pachube (pronounced “patch-bay”) which has developed a network of sensors that collect six million points of data per day.
Pachube believes that making this information freely available could be helpful to end users and other companies who want to create remote monitoring systems that can be viewed over the internet.
For instance developers have created a real-time radiation monitoring system in Japan after the earthquake and nuclear disaster that is available online using automated radiation sensors. While in Australia, Pachube tapped into devices that measure carbon and nitrogen levels in the Logan River to create a real-time water quality monitoring system.
The majority of sensor information is currently encrypted and therefore inaccessible, but Pachube is hoping to encourage more companies to unencrypt their data by proving the power of open source sensor networks.
Glen Allmendinger, the president of Harbor Research, a financial research firm, “Pachube is a disruptive pioneer because, with few exceptions, traditional sensor network players have not moved very far beyond relatively closed systems and platforms. They are setting a new paradigm.”
Currently Pachube freely converts sensor data into standard formats and makes it available to everyone including app developers and researchers. To gain access to historical data or large quantities of data, the company charges users $2 a month.
The company initially launched the beta version of its program in 2009 and has developed programming tools that allow software engineers to combine multiple feeds of data.
Ken Boak, who builds small robotics using an open-hardware platform called Arduino, describes Pachube as “the Web equivalent of a telephone exchange.”
He says, “It allows me to get data and transmit commands between simple microcontroller devices without having to be an expert in Web programming or have any knowledge of server coding.”
