Microsoft Unveils its Research into Sensor Networks for Buildings
Microsoft showed “SenseWeb” at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference.
Feng Zhao explained the basic mesh network of sensors mounted on the ceiling of the convention center, and pointed them out above the heads of keynote attendees. He demonstrated the ability to map the sensors in a browser and analyze the data. Google Maps meets ZigBee. Zhao is a Principal Researcher and Manager in the Networked Embedded Computing Group at Microsoft Research.
Microsoft seems to have crudely replicated common off-the-shelf building-automation technologies and wowed a room full of people who had never seen it before. Zhao didn’t indicate whether the sensors used ZigBee (a wireless sensor network protocol) or some other method.
Zhao surely is aware that this capability has been around for several years. He’s been involved with sensors for at least 3 or 4 years. He would have to have ignored companies like Gridlogix, CePORT and Echelon, who have numerous deployments of similar technology.
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