Pawel Rulikowski, Rafa Martinez, John Barrett

Sensor Network Hardware Infrastructure for Smart Spaces

Adaptive Wireless Systems Group
Department of Electronic Engineering
Cork Institute of Technology

Like people, a "smart space" can only produce reactions based on the information it receives. Some of this information will be "active" i.e. deliberately transmitted by a user e.g. electronic information from personal electronic devices or voice commands. The user will in general expect a specific response from the smart space. At a more advanced level, however, the "adaptive" or "context aware" smart space, if it is to anticipate a user's requirements or manage the space in the absence of users, needs to be equipped with its own means of gathering information. To do this, it uses sensor networks. Just as "smart space" has many different meanings and applications, so has "sensor network". At a very basic level, a deployment of temperature sensors used to control individual room heating in a house is a sensor network which creates a "smart space". However, when this network is extended to monitoring the number of people in each room, their activities, the external climate and the information is used to select the most energy efficient method to set a comfortable temperature based on the recorded or learnt preferences of the users, then the more advanced term of "adaptive smart space" applies. Without a sensor network, a smart space cannot be truly adaptive.

Within the confines of a building, regardless of the complexity of the sensor network, the boundaries of the network are clear and its deployment and monitoring is relatively straightforward. Extend the smart space outside fixed boundaries and the problem becomes more complex. Considering a scenario such as monitoring the position, limb motion and medical vital signs of all the competitors in a triathlon gives a picture of the degree of complexity involved and the scope of the term "sensor network".