Database Group Forum on Sensor Systems

This swiki is intended for discussion on sensors and sensor systems, which will ultimately lead to a framework for database research in the area of sensors.

Big Ideas

Sensors are ubiquitous. There is lots of work on sensor systems, streams of data, sensor networks, mining and so forth. There are, however, some basic issues in making widespread use of sensors in everyday computing, or our everyday lives. We probably have the technology, for example, to track a business traveler from the time they leave their house, through their commute, onto the airplane, to their destination and back. We don't do so.

While the business traveler idea is a little too Orwellian for most of us, there are more practical, less intrusive examples that we could think of. What sensor systems could we exploit easily? What information might we collect, fuse, mine, etc.? What insights might we gain from such research?

We might start with a redefinition of what a Sensor System is. Many definitions have been proposed or are commonly accepted. What formal definitions might we employ that allow us to express the properties of the sensors, their data, and the database systems we will develop?

Meetings

January 28	Database Challenges Presentation (dbsens.ppt)
February 11	(Room Change - CRB 303)Classification of Sensor Systems
February 25	SensorFramework.ppt
March 18	sensordata.doc Current and Previous Research
April 8	Sensor Service Architecture ssa.ppt sensor_model.doc

In this meeting, I would like us to discuss what would constitute a useful classification of Sensor Systems from the perspective of
describing database research challenges in sensor systems.
I would like the classification to allow us to:
- describe related previous research by other groups
- describe related previous research within our own group
- describe interesting new database research challenges

I envision that the classification will provide definitions of core concepts, that it will provide a number of dimensions along which we can classify sensor systems.