Semantic Sensor Web
Encyclopedia
The Semantic Sensor Web is an approach to annotating sensor
data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC) http://www.opengeospatial.org/ Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/sensorweb and extends them with Semantic Web
technologies to provide enhanced descriptions and access to sensor data.
to increase interoperability between heterogeneous sensor networks, as well as to provide contextual information essential for situation awareness
. Semantic web techniques can greatly help with the problem of data integration and discovery as it helps map between different metadata schema in a structured way.
to marry sensor data and sensing information with meaning. The W3C's working group on semantic sensor networks is currently developing some definitive examples. Through the use of ontologies, systems can find sensor networks and their data. Practically, this can be provided through SPARQL end-points, RDF and linked-data.
As IP-enabled, affordable sensor devices of different types become available and are placed around the Earth, 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.
In a sensor Wiki one or more sensors contribute real-time information as Wiki Pages with suitable themes and formats useful to prospective Sensor Wiki users. Sensor Wiki users can look up information about objects, events, or places of interest interactively; they can also add intelligent STT interpretations of what they observe or use sensor tasking to add to the content to improve accuracy, or even develop the overall scene to offer situation assessment on a proactive basis. 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.
Sensor
A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. For example, a mercury-in-glass thermometer converts the measured temperature into expansion and contraction of a liquid which can be read on a calibrated...
data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the Open Geospatial Consortium
Open Geospatial Consortium
The Open Geospatial Consortium , an international voluntary consensus standards organization, originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 400 commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in a consensus process encouraging development and implementation of open...
(OGC) http://www.opengeospatial.org/ Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) http://www.opengeospatial.org/projects/groups/sensorweb and extends them with Semantic Web
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
technologies to provide enhanced descriptions and access to sensor data.
Context
Sensors around the globe currently collect avalanches of data about the 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 metadataMetadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
to increase interoperability between heterogeneous sensor networks, as well as to provide contextual information essential for situation awareness
Situation awareness
Situation awareness, situational awareness, or SA, is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed, such as time...
. Semantic web techniques can greatly help with the problem of data integration and discovery as it helps map between different metadata schema in a structured way.
Ontologies
There is a need for a set of ontologiesOntology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
to marry sensor data and sensing information with meaning. The W3C's working group on semantic sensor networks is currently developing some definitive examples. Through the use of ontologies, systems can find sensor networks and their data. Practically, this can be provided through SPARQL end-points, RDF and linked-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. Understanding the physical world via a myriad of sensors is now possible. Browsing of the current physical reality with the help of each sensor as a real-time Web page can help common users, their neighborhoods become more aware of their situations and can probe further into objects and related analytics of interest by tapping into relevant information stored somewhere online, in effect, enabling potential for collective self-aware "intelligent neighborhoods". This can become basis for collaborative, actionable situational awareness.As IP-enabled, affordable sensor devices of different types become available and are placed around the Earth, 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.
In a sensor Wiki one or more sensors contribute real-time information as Wiki Pages with suitable themes and formats useful to prospective Sensor Wiki users. Sensor Wiki users can look up information about objects, events, or places of interest interactively; they can also add intelligent STT interpretations of what they observe or use sensor tasking to add to the content to improve accuracy, or even develop the overall scene to offer situation assessment on a proactive basis. 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.
See also
- Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group
- 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
- Sensor WebSensor WebThe concept of the "sensor web" is a type of sensor network that is especially well suited for environmental monitoring.The phrase the "sensor web" is also associated with a sensing system which heavily utilizes the World Wide Web...
- The Web of Things , European Semantic Web Conference 2011.
- Videk - A Mash-up for Environmental Intelligence, AI Mash-up challenge @ ESWC 2011.
Further reading
- Amit Sheth, Cory Henson, and Satya Sahoo, "Semantic Sensor Web," IEEE Internet Computing, July/August 2008, p.78-83. http://knoesis.org/library/publications/SHS08-IC-Column-SSW.pdf
- Manfred Hauswirth and Stefan Decker, "Semantic Reality - Connecting the Real and the Virtual World," Microsoft SemGrail Workshop, Redmond, Washington, June 21-22, 2007. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/events/semgrail2007/manfredh_position.pdf
- 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.