Land down underCSIRO to lead effort to standardize sensor network information sharing
Sensors, and sensor networks, are the wave of the future (the wave is already here, in fact) in allowing remote monitoring of everything from machinery to buildings’ temperature to perimeter fences to water quality to patients’ health and much, much more; Aussie research organization now leads the effort to develop standards for sharing information collected by sensors and sensor networks over the Internet
In the United States we have DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The official motto of this intellectually restless, push-the-envelope agency is “Building the future from the inside out.” The élan of the organization (even, to use Henri Bergson’s term, “élan vital”) was best captured by Lewis Page, who wrote that the researchers at DARPA “believe it is better to invent a head-mounted multispectral imaging device than curse the darkness.” Precisely.
In Australia they have the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). It has a broader research portfolio than the defense-oriented DARPA, but it, too, is imbued with the spirit of innovation and a can-do approach. The latest news: the CSIRO will lead an international initiative to develop standards for sharing information collected by sensors and sensor networks over the Internet. Dr. Kerry Taylor and Amit Parashar of CSIRO’s ICT Center are to co-chair the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Semantic Sensor Network incubator group.
The incubator group is developing an ontology for different types of sensing devices, and a new standard to enable sensors to interact using the Web, in the W3C’s XML format. “Together, they will smooth the way for large-scale interoperation of sensors and sensor networks — an important step in enabling a world-wide web of environmental sensors,” Taylor said. “This will be especially important to environmental scientists working on problems in biodiversity, water and climate change.”
CSIRO co-chairs the incubator group with Wright State University and the Open Geospatial Consortium, a nonprofit, international, voluntary consensus standards organization that is leading the development of standards for geospatial and location-based services.
The W3C itself is an international body responsible for developing global web standards. It develops specifications, guidelines, software, and Web-based tools. CSIRO’s research into sensors and sensor networks aims to increase the quality and reduce the cost of capturing environmental data.
The Australian W3C office has been hosted by CSIRO since 2005.
HS Daily Wire will publish Australian Technology and Innovation Special Report in June 2009; for more information contact Cindy Whitman at cwhitman@hsdailywire.com
