Motorola
Technology in sponsoring MODUS 2008,
a technical workshop bringing together
researchers and practitioners from both
academia and industry working in sensor
networking and mobile computing. The
workshop will be used to foster a discussion
on the key research challenges and exploration
of new business models around mobile
device centric sensing and urban sensing.
The goal of the workshop
is not only to promote the visibility
of mobile device sensing and urban sensing
research across the community, but also
to provide insights into theoretical
aspects as well as practical methods
and tools, including key reusable technology
components and platforms that can serve
as a foundation for further research
in this area. |
We
invite contributions from researchers
working in areas including, but not
limited to, the topics of interest below:
- Application development
- Opportunistic sensing
and networking
- User activity inference
- Interactions with
mobile device applications
- Human-Machine Interface
- Context-awareness
- Mobility modeling
and management
- Interoperatability
with traditional sensor networks
- Platform and Operating
System support
- Software architecture
and networking protocols
- Middleware infrastructure
- Quality-of-Service
and cross-layer optimization
- Scalability in metropolitan
environments
- Security, privacy,
robustness, and fault tolerance
- Resource management
and energy efficient design
- Simulation tools
and testbeds
- Standards development,
business models, and policies
High-quality papers
may be considered for fast-track publication
in the Elsevier Pervasive and Mobile
Computing journal, after they have been
suitably extended.
Learn more about the
Call
for Papers and submission
instructions. |
| Over
the past few years, sensor networking
research has seen a renaissance with
innovative research in areas such as
routing protocols, group formation,
macro-programming, power management,
and query processing. While research
drove numerous point solutions and trials
in the areas of asset tracking, environmental
monitoring and structural health monitoring,
we have yet to see the promise of ubiquitous
sensing environments come to fruition
in large-scale deployments or commercially-feasible
applications. The need for a valid
and sustainable business ecosystem
is critical to driving further research
efforts and business success in this
area.
While many reasons exist
for this (cost being a major factor),
a primary issue is the lack of adequate
widespread sensing nodes or platforms
in real-world deployments today. One
reason for this is that practical deployments
for wireless sensor networks often require
careful planning and orchestration and
typically result in static deployments
of large numbers of sensor nodes in
well-defined areas (warehouses, bridges,
environmental preserves and homes) –
far short of the ubiquitous ‘smart
dust’ vision. Furthermore, we
are increasingly seeing the emergence
of new applications for urban sensing
(e.g., pollution monitoring in urban
areas, noise tracking in residential
areas) where the need for sensing may
be too short-lived to justify the sizeable
costs for a permanent static
sensor network, or where the sensing
task is itself opportunistic
and thus cannot have been predicted
or planned for well in advance.
To address these needs,
we consider the emerging paradigm where
mobile handheld and vehicular devices
can be provisioned as ‘sensor
nodes’ and be used to host, network
and access resident sensors dynamically.
Compared to traditional wireless sensor
networks, this new paradigm enables
massive and cost-effective deployment
of sensors that scales and evolves easily
with the proliferation of the corresponding
mobile devices. By pushing sensing technology
directly onto consumer electronics and
into civic life, various value-added
services can be developed for enhanced
device functionalities and user experiences,
thus driving a broad range of public
space applications and business opportunities.
The ubiquity of the devices, coupled
with their inherent mobility and networking
allows for new applications research
involving opportunistic provisioning,
querying and usage of sensing capability
in response to real-time requests for
information. Finally, the new paradigm
also offers a slew of technical advantages
including closer and more intuitive
user interaction, relaxed resource and
battery constraints, easier localization
and time synchronization, and support
for multiple communication interfaces.
At the same time, the personal nature
of these devices raises both concerns
(e.g., in privacy, security and access
control) and business opportunities
(e.g., incentive schemes for participatory
sensing). |
