Distributed Sensing Using Mobile Smart phones
mobile phones are proliferating the world over, with well over two billion in use worldwide. In India, about 8 million mobile phones are added each month
and the total number of such phones is approaching 300 million. While the vast majority of mobile phones in use are basic phones that only support voice, the share of smart phones—programmable phones that can run computer applications—is on the rise. For example, of the billion phones sold worldwide in 2007, 15 per cent—a sizeable 150 million—were smart phones. Phones get more sense!
The usage of smart phones has thus far focused on voice telephony as well as data applications such as e-mail and Web browsing, and word processing,If you thought your smart phone was already doing more than enough by allowing you
to send e-mail, browse the Web and do word processing, think again. It might just become part of the distributed sensing revolution that is set to sweep the world.
The mass of mobile smart phones equipped with sensors could be turned into a giant distributed sensing system,allowing users to benefit from information gathered via other phones and usersThere are a number of challenges that need to be overcome in making opportunistic or participatory sensing a reality. Many of these challenges arise from one simple fact: a mobile phone is primarily a user’s personal device, so any attempt to leverage it for a community application such as distributed sensing must not intrude on the user’s use or ownership
of their device.Thus, there are technical challenges such as ensuring
that the sensing task imposes minimally on battery energy and respects the user’s privacy. There are also part-technical and part social challenges, such as providing users with the right incentives to participate. The good news is that all of these problems are the subject of active research. So if all goes well,you and I might find ourselves as participants in and consumers of distributed sensing applications in the not-too-distant future. It might then seem to us as routine as making a phone call !.
From TECHBYTE 2008