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Moving Sensor Data Onto The Internet With SensorML

Posted by timothy on from the we-know-how-you're-feeling dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to this Sensors article, a new XML encoding scheme may make it possible for you to remotely discover, access, and use real-time data obtained directly from Web-resident sensors, instruments, and imaging devices. By describing sensors using SensorML, anyone can put sensors or sensor data online for others to find and use. And because it's XML-based, it means all this data will easily be searchable. "For example, searching for particular kinds of sensors and data in a particular geographic region, with data collected within a particular time window, will be easy. This has significance for science, environmental monitoring, transportation management, public safety, disaster management, utilities operations, industrial controls, facilities management, and many other activities." In this column, you'll find a summary of the Sensors' story which contains more technical details about the technology. And if you're really interested, please visit the SensorML homepage."

5 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. trust by kilf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It might be difficult to establish trust for these technologies. If I want to know the temperature in some distant city, how can I be sure that the sensor I address is correctly calibrated, or not resting near a air-con outlet? In fact, there would be no way to tell if the damn thing even exists- it could be a textfile sat on the sever or the local tourist office...

    1. Re:trust by SteveDob · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Surely, unless you knew for certain that individual sensor results could be trusted, and possibly not even then, you would sample several devices in, or near, the location of interest.

    2. Re:trust by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Thank you, Mr. Anonymous Coward! You have shown us how easily XML solves yet another problem! The power of XML is truly amazing! Moreover, perhaps you can address the problems of people not bothering to fill all the fields correctly? And how do we know when the calibration was done, by whom, and how accurate it was?

  2. Re:Why oh why XML? by jon077 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wait! Hold on, back up. HTML is XML, so it obviously is working for the majority of data transfers. Secondly, why would anyone give direct access to a DB? The slow connections of a DB are not suitable for presenting data to the public. I am sure many of the Web Services, extract the data, then cache it, or write it to disk, then present the same data to the world. Sure a better solution to XML may exist, but it is not reading directly from a DB. For now, Vive Le XML.

  3. Re:Why oh why XML? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    XML has provided a set of rules for developing file formats. If you have ever had to sit down and think about how to make your information available to other people to use in their applications it's great. If you are dealing with semi-structured data like recipes it is ideal.

    Yes it is verbose and overkill for highly structured data but until someone develops/markets a method of developing file formats that are not verbose more suited to machine transfer its the best I am aware of.

    I do think we need this extensible binary formatting language or what-ever it would be, but until then XML is allowing groups of people to agree on standard file/data formats a lot quicker and easier than starting from a blank piece of paper.

    Islay