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The Future Of Wireless Sensor Networks
Frisky070802 writes "In the 12/03 Wired, Intel's Tiny Hope for the Future describes a fundamental transformation as Intel's Research director David Tennenhouse realized the importance of sensor networks. He saw a Berkeley project on 'motes,' little sensors that communicate on ad-hoc wireless networks. 'The company now foresees networks consisting of thousands of motes, located wherever there's a need for data collection, streaming real-time data to one another and to central servers. Intel imagines the day when every assembly line, soybean field, and nursing home on the planet will be peppered with motes, prodding factory foremen to replace faulty machines, farmers to water fields, and nurses to check on something unusual in room E214.' Intel was impressed enough with the technology to fund a whole 'lablet' to develop it. Intel sees a huge potential market in developing both the sensors and the computation to process the huge amounts of sensor information. If this rings any bells, note that the Intel lablets are also behind the Planetlab Internet emulator, previously discussed in Slashdot."
Is this idea all that original? It seems to me like this is the kind of thing imagined for wireless communication from the start. We already have wireless communication. We already have programs to monitor things and send data. Is it that inventive just to combine the two?
Esoteric reference.
This could be really useful for monitoring kids at the sleep lab where I do some work. It's hard enough just getting a myriad (EEG, EOG, ECG, O2, CO2, etc.) of sensors stuck on a kid, the fact that you then end up with huge mass of wires causes all sorts of problems, making it hard for the kid to get to sleep, plus there's the tendancy to pull on the leads, totally destroying the signal (often several times a night).
By Vernor Vinge is a very good book that uses that concept a lot.
It discuss, amongts other topics, the consequences of total information awarness brought by a technology similar to this (but better, because its sci-fi, not sci-fact).
You can't take the sky from me...
Here's an analogy: think about the visible-spectrum radiation emitted by an LED. Are you concerned about sunburns or skin-cancer from LED radiation? (If so, I'd like to see your computer room...) These motes will be capable of transmitting similar amounts of power. I doubt very much that they'll adversely affect anything with their radiation.
Their bigger impact will probably be the damage done by the adhesives or fasteners used to stick them to their monitoring posts, or by the hazardous wastes left behind when they're done using them.
John
This is a really cool idea
Doesn't the whole concept seem kind of Orwellian? Doesn't the following quote from the article disturb you?:
Deployed the way Tennenhouse envisions, the networks will require zero human input. We'll reap the benefits without having to interact with the networks, and Intel will eliminate a long-standing obstacle to its growth: the feebleness of the human brain. "Sensor nets let us relieve the human being of the responsibility of drawing information out of the physical world," says Tennenhouse. "We need to have computers anticipating our needs and sometimes taking action on our behalf."
It bothers me - sounds like SkyNet or something. Not to even mention the environmental waste/radio interference for all these machine.
That's the beauty of an off-beat R&D lab. They're given free rein to develop just about anything without regard to need OR profit.
AT&T and IBM both funded labs like these for years. They were responsible for developing such novel and diverse things as transistors and scanning tunnelling microscopes. The goal is, of course, that they will develop a product that fills a real need, which in turn will create a demand for their product appeasing their shareholders.
I think it's absolutely terrific that some industries are able to risk investing in the totally unknown. It was truly a shame when Bell Labs dropped their unfettered research. It was also disappointing to see IBM drop research for all but computer-related work. But even so, their Zurich labs have recently come up with some novel storage mechanisms leveraging their decade-old scanning tunnelling work.
Regardless of whether these labs prove to be duds or if one of them creates the transistor of the 21st century, the money is being well spent. Exploring the unknown is always of value.
John
I saw Berkeley and Intel also present on this technology at O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference in 2003. The presentation synopsis is here, although the presentation sadly is not:
e _sess/3797
o rks.htm
:)
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2003/view/
They are doing amazing sci-fi type stuff with their Motes already, it was a pretty amazing presentation, touching on swarm behavior, conspiracy theories, technical deployment issues, and just plain good-old fun hackery. The wired article really should have mentioned that serious hobbyists can purchase a mote starter kit and other stuff here:
http://www.xbow.com/Products/Wireless_Sensor_Netw
Note that there is a classroom starter kit. I would think this sort of stuff would get high-schoolers really excited about science. A great stocking stuffer for your local high-school (although at $1,000 or more maybe a little out of my budget).
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of..... never mind.
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
The company I interned for this summer had some of this going on: we had tags we would place on residents for certain purposes (ones that would detect urine in an adult diaper, would alert nurse if a resident pissed themself, and wouldn't sit in thier own piss till a nurse came to check, cut down on urinary tract infections, as well as ones that would detect if a person with alzimers wandered too far from their room, that sort of thing). While not in an ad hoc network style, these would at least alert the nearest CNA that something was ary. And if the alert went unchecked, it would go up the chain of command, possibly to the point where the head nurse or director of the home would be notified, and someones ass would be in trouble. Was an interesting application, though i wasnt lucky enough to have worked on them. I got to work on the CRM software. woo and stuff.
"Something's wrong with you...and I hope we never do meet again." - Deftones When Girls Telephone Boys
Of a B-52 Bomber raining motion sensors down on a city. I doubt they would have much tactical use in a non-urban enviroment due to it being so spread out, but in cities being able to tell what's moving on every street corner would kick ass.
the Planetlab Internet emulator
Planet-Lab is not an emulator. It is a group of computers distributed across the globe that use the real internet. People write distributed apps and run them on different vantage points spread out on the net to measure real internet performance, test their app etc.
Also, I think you're right about the orwellian aspect; but I figure this is going to happen anyways. Technology is powerful. There are those who wish to hold power over others. If you look at history, you'll find a hell of a lot of the buggers! And those who want power, will find these wonderful new tools, and put them to their uses. I don't like it, but I think it's the other edge of that double-edged sword called Technology.
The only solution is to (a) put into place systems to keep those people from abusing the technology or (b) wait until they abuse it, and hopefully a structure will come into place through intense struggle that will keep it from happening again.
How convenient...for a company that sells microprocessors ;). As market the penetration of PC's approaches 100%, Intel envisions a future in which everybody needs to have thousands (or millions) of devices with a microprocessor, instead of a just a handful. And of course they require zero human input. Nobody could operate or pay attention to thousands of devices at once.
Some researchers from UC Berkeley's Smart Dust project have founded a startup in Berkeley called Dust, Inc.
cpeterso
ATMega128 7.3 MHz microcontroller
4 KB RAM, 128 KB PROGRAM EEPROM,
512 KB flash memory for measurements
433 MHz wireless radio, CC1000 transciver,
30 messages per second, 29 bytes in each message
radio range is about 100-300 feet
runs on two AA batteries for 3 days continuously
various pluggable sensor boards
The motes run the TinyOS, freely available from sourceforge
The Berkeley guys are working on the dust mote, 1 mm2 target size including the radio chip. The biggest limitation now is the battery power and the radio range. Even if they can get the size down to "dust", the antenna HAS TO BE 1/4 of the radio wave length. For the 433 MHz version this is around 8-10 inches! So these dust motes will have "tails". Eventually, these could painted on the wall, or dumped from the air for millitary applications. Lot's of unsolved problems. For sensor networks, how do you obtain large amount of data through a few base stations? Smart aggregation and routing protocols need to be employed, and the network must process the data by itself.
Just my 2c.
Wireless power transmission is a possibility. At low power levels, it's quite feasible. That's how RFID tags work, after all. In controlled spaces, like hospitals, airports, aircraft, and prisons, it could work.
Let see, thousands of tiny mote sensors spread throughout your living environment. Does the convenience factor outweigh the privacy factor? I can see law enforcement and marketing corps loving this whole idea. Some future attorney general might try to make embedding these into most consumer products and fabric a requirement.
Law enforcement could use these motes for cheap surveillance and community monitoring. Just think of it - some of the motes would be equipped with mics and DSPs and could be easily enabled by the consumer and/or law enforcement. Other motes would register heat/cool (for A/C & heat control) and could also track people and animals. Heck, specialized motes could be built to detect illegal drug use (pot/crack fumes). Detectives wouldn't even have to get next to your house seeing how you bought that slick wireless router (you had to since owning a wired router would brand you a terrorist with something to hide).
Madison Ave marketing would also love motes. Advertisers could use motes to determine the best time to call you (when you are home) and the best time customize your commercials (when you watch tv). How about a great rate on home insurance - only it will be terminated the moment the sensors pickup impending doom (water leak, structural damage, etc). With consumer electronics going wireless advertisers could have a field day tracking what you buy and how you act to determine what they should market to you.
Then think about the convenience - the A/C-heater could adjust the temp for the room you are in, the whole house, or some pattern possibly based on your behavior. Lights that turn on only for the rooms that are occupied, and to the level the person in that room wants. How about motes that detect that you haven't moved in 24 hours and alerts rescue/coroner. Hey, motes that listen for and act upon your command - "computer - music - light jazz - New Orleans bar after 2am" (motes play recording of bartender telling you the bar is closing and to get the hell out - only not that politely). Motes could tell you your oldest son is smoking in his room, daughter has lit some candles, teenage son is 'enjoying himself', the baby could use changing, and the wife is cheating on you (that wasn't your stain on the bed sheets). All that and more...
The motes could make your life great - in exchange for some privacy. What the heck, you have nothing to worry about as long as you are a law abiding, patriotic (to the current admin, not to the Constitution), well-adjusted citizen...
Being a graduate student at MIT working on sensor networks, I have to mention our project. : )
A MPShome.html
http://www-mtl.mit.edu/research/icsystems/uamps/u
The uAMPS project will involve designing integrated circuits that realize wireless sensor networks. There are students researching low power integrated circuits - both analog and digital. I'm doing the wireless stuff.
You have to be careful to separate the hype from reality regarding sensor networks, but there are definitely some cool applications. One thing that I think will definitely help things progress is the new 802.15.4 standard (Zigbee).
doodles