The Expanding Possibilities of Sensor Networks

- Live E! Workshop Report

Live E! is a project which allows people to openly access meteorological data over the network by setting up "Digital Instrument Shelters" nationwide that contain sensors used to measure meteorological data such as temperature, precipitation, and wind velocity.

These days, people all over the world are more aware of environmental issues. This project aims to contribute to solving environmental issues by using ubiquitous technology that continues to progress. More specifically, they aim to build the foundation for a new public service by creating a sensor network that covers all of Japan and making it so that anyone can use the data without restriction.

A workshop entitled "Deployment and Application of Sensor Networks", hosted by the Live E! Council, was held at the University of Tokyo on July 27th and 28th. In this workshop, a wide variety of reports were given, not only on the Live E! Project, but also on business and research activities dealing with sensor networks.

The keynote speaker for the first day was Prof. Shinichi Takemura, from the Kyoto University of Art and Design, who is also the head of the Earth Literacy Program. In his talk entitled " 'Designing a Global Nervous System' – The Potential of a Global Sensor Network", he spoke about the possibilities of a sensor network that would cover the entire world.

Prof. Takemura's specialization is actually cultural anthropology, not engineering; he has been pursuing various projects using networks from a human perspective. Simply put, the theme is "visualization", which means to use technology to make it possible to see things that are hard to see using human eyes alone.

Let's take a look at some projects that he took part in.

"Breathing Earth" (http://www.sensorium.org/breathingearth/logdata02/index-j.html), which was exhibited in the Japan Theme Pavilion at Internet World Expo 96, maps data on actual earthquakes on a 3-D graphic of the earth. When it shows earthquake data in the order that the earthquakes occurred by having bubbles appear on earth, it looks as if the earth is alive, pulsating as if it's breathing.

The multimedia globe "Tangible Earth", which was a permanent exhibit at EXPO 2005 Aichi, is a globe display that you can operate by directly touching it. On the globe, by displaying what children from countries in different longitudes worldwide are doing at that time, it shows the difference in time.

"Sakura Scape" by the Earth Literacy Program (http://www.elp.or.jp/) displays in which areas cherry blossoms have bloomed in real time on a map of Japan by having people send in pictures of cherry blossoms via their cell phones.

Prof. Takemura calls the concept for these projects the "blind people who network". By this phrase, he means that in the past, the data directly available to individuals was very limited; it was indeed the state of "a group of blind men touching an elephant". However, with the advancement of networks, those blind men are now connected; by sharing and accumulating the data using the network, the entire picture (the whole elephant) can be drawn.

Another thing that Prof. Takemura emphasizes is that the sensors connected to networks include not only mechanical devices but also individual humans. In other words, it means that everyone can participate in the networked world.

From 2006, the Earth Literacy Program and Live E! will jointly start the "Live ELP!" project. By blending Live E!, which focuses on mechanical sensor networks, and the Earth Literacy Program, which is a program where people gather information, they will visualize the relationship between humans and the environment and pursuit the potential of IT that exists where the real and the virtual are connected.

"IT that recognizes the importance of humans". Prof. Takemura concluded his talk by saying that that was indeed the image of IT society that Japan should aim for.

Live E! Council (Japanese)
http://www.live-e.org/index.html