The Tenet project has made a public release of the Tenet software v2.0. Tenet is software for flexibly programming a tiered network of sensors. Tiered networks consist of motes and masters (PC-class devices, such as Stargate, that run Linux or Cygwin). In Tenet, all applications run on the masters which task the motes using a simple but expressive linear data-flow tasking language. Tenet 2.0 introduces several new platforms/protocols/features and has been used in seismic and habitat monitoring deployments for up to a month.

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Sow monitoring is a very interesting application area for sensor networks. Consider sows wearing sensor nodes incorporating movement detectors as well as a micro-controller and a radio. A farmer could have wireless contact with the sensor nodes and thus track the sows roaming freely in their assigned pen. Software running on the sensor nodes could also alert the farmer in case a sow is entering its heat period (there is a correlation between the movement of the sows and its heat period). Today, sows wear tags but farmers need physical contacts with those tags to identify the animal; in addition, farmers are on their own to monitor heat. The Danish Committee for Pig Production has recognized the potential of sensor networks for sow monitoring.

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Those annoying and often ignored car alarms could be a thing of the past if researchers developing an anti-theft sensor network have their way.

According to scientists at Penn State, the anti-theft car network would require a sensor (or multiple tiny slave sensors) in each auto that would then register it to a local master sensor. In a parking lot the cars would form a great big secure network.

Right now the sensors we are testing are about the size of a dollar coin according to Sencun Zhu, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Penn State. “We will eventually make them only about a cubic millimeter, small enough to embed in a parking sticker and very inexpensive to manufacture.” A cubic millimeter is about the size of an ice cream sprinkle, researchers noted.

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Joe Polastre (Sentilla CTO) have been running around the world over the last few weeks, with two trips to Europe and some other trips around the US. He gave a number of invited talks, have spent time talking with visionaries and leaders like John Gage, and have constantly been revising the presentation to address all of the great questions that I’ve received. The presentation’s focus on the impact pervasive computing will have on our society, how Sentilla’s platform is leading this next generation of computing, what’s in the platform, and how did Sentilla make it all fit inside a tiny embedded computer that has never been done before. He have also had a number of interactions with people working on some very cool projects — including projects that I’m allowed to talk about publicly (those are always the most fun for me).

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“PUMPING” data around a wireless network of sensors - just as blood is pumped around the human circulatory system - could allow the sensors’ batteries to last four times as long.

Sensor networks like the ones used for environmental monitoring are usually “tree-like”. Their branching structure means information gets from A to B quickly, but means devices have to be turned on permanently to co-ordinate the data traffic.

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How stressed are we? A sensor vest will soon be able to tell us. From sports training to computer games, the garment registers the electrical excitation of the muscles at any given time and determines the level of physical stress.

Stressed out? Time to take a break? It will not be long before our clothing gives us the answer. In the EU’s CONTEXT project, companies and research institutes are developing a comfortable vest that will read muscle tension and deduce stress levels at any given time. At the core of the vest is “wearable electronics”. This consists of sensors woven into the fabric that register the electrical excitation of the muscle fibers, and thin conducting metallic fibers that pass the signals to an electronic analysis system.

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A broad range of PhD, postdoctoral, and administrative positions are available from September 2008 at the new CLARITY centre in Ireland for Sensor Web Technologies. The centre, which has a respectful track record on sensor networking, data mining and user personalised data, is offering competitive salaries for all positions, strong collaborations with industry and great international visibility.

General enquires about WSN-relaed PhDs and postdocs can be sent to Dr. Antonio Ruzzelli:

Fore more information about the vacancies, click here.

Science Foundation Ireland, the main governmental funding agency in Ireland, has recently awarded €11.8 million to the new CLARITY centre for Sensor Web Technologies to research on adaptive sensing and information discovery. Further €4.6 million funding has been provided by strong industry partnership and national agencies including: IBM, Vodafone, Ericsson, Foster-Miller, ChangingWorlds, Fidelity Investments and Critical Path, Environmental Protection Agency, and the Irish Marine Institute. The center is a partnership between University College Dublin and Dublin City University, supported by research at the Tyndall National Institute (TNI) Cork.

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Surface processes in cold mountains are laterally highly variable and often investigated using spatially-distributed measurements and models. However, the full exploitation of distributed environmental measurements and models is often hindered by imperfect data (measurement errors, gaps, changing protocols, spatial autocorrelation effects) and a lack of methods and tools.

Within the NCCR-MICS (www.mics.org) project PermaSense, this PhD candidate will also be responsible for the conceptual design of the data management backend (based on existing SwissExperiment infrastructure) and interface with project partners at the ETH Zurich, the EPF Lausanne and the University of Basel.

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District of Columbia police plan to expand a gunshot sound sensor program to cover almost a quarter of the city, which would make it among the largest networks in the country.

The network of ShotSpotter sensors has been deployed to high-crime neighborhoods since 2006, pinpointing the exact location of gunfire. Police say by September, they expect to cover 16 of D.C.’s 68 square miles with the sensors.

The sensors, roughly the size of coffee cans, are hidden atop buildings and connect directly to police dispatchers by wireless radio or telephone lines.

Officers said since the program began, police have been able to quickly find 13 homicide victims and 49 assault victims. They have also helped police make nine arrests and determine the best places to strengthen patrols, officials added.

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