Semantic Sensor Web

Sensors around the globe currently collect avalanches of data about our world. The rapid development and deployment of sensor technology is intensifying the existing problem of too much data and not enough knowledge. With a view to alleviating this glut, sensor data can be annotated with semantic metadata to increase interoperability between heterogeneous sensor networks, as well as provide contextual information essential for situation awareness. In particular, the Semantic Sensor Web (SSW) presents an approach to annotating video sensor data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) [1] Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) [2] and extends them with Semantic Web technologies to provide enhanced descriptions and access to sensor data .

Real-Time Extension, Sensor Wiki Enablement via "Sensing Cloud"

Additionally, real-time extension of the Semantic Sensor Web concept is being developed, called Sensor Wiki. The motivation behind this concept is to allow real-time browsing of the physical world consistent with the STT situational awareness goal. Sensing physical world via myriad of sensors is now possible. Sensory information clearly enhances our experience of our environment and adds to our real-time understanding.

As IP-enabled, affordable sensor devices of different types become available and are placed around, referred to as a "Sensing Cloud", in our environment, integrating the diverse sensory streams into the web can serve different user or machine queries via the concept of Sensor Wiki. Encouraging people to contribute real-time "sensory" information is the goal subject to privacy and security constraints. Intelligent mobile devices can act as hubs and/or sources and sinks of such real-time streams.

One or more sensors will contribute real-time information as "Wiki Pages" with suitable "themes" and format to be useful to prospective Sensor Wiki users. We expect users to use Sensor Wiki to "look-up" information about the objects, events or places of interest interactively, potentially tasking sensors on-demand basis, and to offer to add intelligent STT interpretations of what they observe or to use sensor tasking to add to the content to improve accuracy, or even to develop the overall scene to offer situation assessment on a proactive basis in the "Wiki" spirit. Others might want to record such sensor streams and related information as part of a larger objective such as future planning, training or simply record keeping for historical purposes and make it available to a specific community or an individual.

Sports events and related sports medicine would be good as examples to demonstrate this concept. Players, fans, and all the supporting communities could participate and benefit. (source/ref. Prem Pungaliya)

See also

• Knoesis Center — A research center focusing on realizing a knowledge society that utilizes semantics and services as key enablers.
• Semantic Sensor Web Project @ Knoesis Center — Research project at Kno.e.sis Center bringing semantics to sensor networks.
• SWE2009 - Workshop on Sensor Web Enablement
• SemSensWeb2009 - 1st International Workshop on Semantic Sensor Web

Further reading

• Amit Sheth, Cory Henson, and Satya Sahoo, "Semantic Sensor Web," IEEE Internet Computing, July/August 2008, p.78-83. [3]
• Manfred Hauswirth and Stefan Decker, "Semantic Reality - Connecting the Real and the Virtual World," Microsoft SemGrail Workshop, Redmond, Washington, June 21-22, 2007. [4]
• Cory Henson, Josh Pschorr, Amit Sheth, and Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, “SemSOS: Semantic Sensor Observation Service,” International Symposium on Collaborative Technologies and Systems (CTS2009), Workshop on Sensor Web Enablement (SWE2009), Baltimore, Maryland, 2009.