Search Results (15)

To safely protect workplaces and the workforce during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, a scalable integrated sensing solution is required in order to offer real-time situational awareness and early warnings for decision-makers. However, an information-based solution for industry reopening is ineffective when the necessary operational information is locked up in disparate real-time data silos. There is a lot of ongoing effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic using different combinations of low-cost, location-based contact tracing, and sensing technologies. These ad hoc Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for COVID-19 were developed using different data models and protocols without an interoperable way to interconnect these heterogeneous systems and exchange data on people and place interactions. This research aims to design and develop an interoperable Internet of COVID-19 Things (IoCT) architecture that is able to exchange, aggregate, and reuse disparate IoT sensor data sources in order for informed decisions to be made after understanding the real-time risks in workplaces based on person-to-place interactions. The IoCT architecture is based on the Sensor Web paradigm that connects various Things, Sensors, and Datastreams with an indoor geospatial data model. This paper presents a study of what, to the best of our knowledge, is the first real-world integrated implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) and IndoorGML standards to calculate the risk of COVID-19 online using a workplace reopening case study. The proposed IoCT offers a new open standard-based information model, architecture, methodologies, and software tools that enable the interoperability of disparate COVID-19 monitoring systems with finer spatial-temporal granularity. A workplace cleaning use case was developed in order to demonstrate the capabilities of this proposed IoCT architecture. The implemented IoCT architecture included proximity-based contact tracing, people density sensors, a COVID-19 risky behavior monitoring system, and the contextual building geospatial data. Full article

Geolocation information is an important feature of remote sensing image data that is captured through a variety of passive or active observation sensors, such as push-broom electro-optical sensor, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and sound navigation and ranging (SONAR). As a fundamental processing step to locate an image, geo-positioning is used to determine the ground coordinates of an object from image coordinates. A variety of sensor models have been created to describe geo-positioning process. In particular, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has defined the Sensor Model Language (SensorML) specification in its Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) initiative to describe sensors including the geo-positioning process. It has been realized using syntax from the extensible markup language (XML). Besides, two standards defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO 19130-1 and ISO 19130-2, introduced a physical sensor model, a true replacement model, and a correspondence model for the geo-positioning process. However, a standardized encoding for geo-positioning sensor models is still missing for the remote sensing community. Thus, the interoperability of remote sensing data between application systems cannot be ensured. In this paper, a standardized encoding of remote sensing geo-positioning sensor models is introduced. It is semantically based on ISO 19130-1 and ISO 19130-2, and syntactically based on OGC SensorML. It defines a cross mapping of the sensor models defined in ISO 19130-1 and ISO 19130-2 to the SensorML, and then proposes a detailed encoding method to finalize the XML schema (an XML schema here is the structure to define an XML document), which will become a profile of OGC SensorML. It seamlessly unifies the sensor models defined in ISO 19130-1, ISO 19130-2, and OGC SensorML. By enabling a standardized description of sensor models used to produce remote sensing data, this standard is very promising in promoting data interoperability, mobility, and integration in the remote sensing domain. Full article

Time-domain reflectometry (TDR) is considered as a passive monitoring technique which reveals multi-functions, such as water level, bridge scour, landslide, and suspended sediment concentration (SSC), based on a single TDR device via multiplexing and related algorithms. The current platform for revealing TDR analysis and interpreted observations, however, is complex to access, thus a coherent data model and format for TDR heterogeneous data exchange is useful and necessary. To enhance the interoperability of TDR information, this research aims at standardizing the TDR data based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards. To be specific, this study proposes a TDR sensor description model and an observation model based on the Sensor Model Language (SensorML) and Observation and Measurement (O&M) standards. In addition, a middleware was developed to translate existing TDR information to a Sensor Observation Service (SOS) web service. Overall, by standardizing TDR data with the OGC SWE open standards, relevant information for disaster management can be effectively and efficiently integrated in an interoperable manner. Full article

The adoption of Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) practices by sensor maintainers is hampered by the inherent complexity of the Sensor Model Language (SensorML), its high expressiveness, and the scarce availability of editing tools. To overcome these issues, the Earth Observation (EO) community often recurs to SensorML profiles narrowing the range of admitted metadata structures and value ranges. Unfortunately, profiles frequently fall short of providing usable editing tools and comprehensive validation criteria, particularly for the difficulty of checking value ranges in the multi-tenanted domain of the Web of Data. In this paper, we provide an updated review of current practices, techniques, and tools for editing SensorML in the perspective of profile support and introduce our solution for effective profile definition. Beside allowing for formalization of a broad range of constraints that concur in defining a metadata profile, our proposal closes the gap between profile definition and actual editing of the corresponding metadata by allowing for ex-ante validation of the metadata that is produced. On this basis, we suggest the notion of Semantic Web SensorML profiles, characterized by a new family of constraints involving Semantic Web sources. We also discuss implementation of SensorML profiles with our tool and pinpoint the benefits with respect to the existing ex-post validation facilities provided by schema definition languages. Full article

Finding a solution to collect, analyze, and share, in near real-time, data acquired by heterogeneous sensors, such as traffic, air pollution, soil moisture, or weather data, represents a great challenge. This paper describes the solution developed at Eurac Research to automatically upload data, in near real-time, by adopting Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) standards to guarantee interoperability. We set up a methodology capable of ingesting heterogeneous datasets to automatize observation uploading and sensor registration, with minimum interaction required of the user. This solution has been successfully tested and applied in the Long Term (Socio-)Ecological Research (LT(S)ER) Matsch-Mazia initiative, and the code is accessible under the CC BY 4.0 license. Full article

The study of global phenomena requires the combination of a considerable amount of data coming from different sources, acquired by different observation platforms and managed by institutions working in different scientific fields. Merging this data to provide extensive and complete data sets to monitor the long-term, global changes of our oceans is a major challenge. The data acquisition and data archival procedures usually vary significantly depending on the acquisition platform. This lack of standardization ultimately leads to information silos, preventing the data to be effectively shared across different scientific communities. In the past years, important steps have been taken in order to improve both standardization and interoperability, such as the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework. Within this framework, standardized models and interfaces to archive, access and visualize the data from heterogeneous sensor resources have been proposed. However, due to the wide variety of software and hardware architectures presented by marine sensors and marine observation platforms, there is still a lack of uniform procedures to integrate sensors into existing SWE-based data infrastructures. In this work, a framework aimed to enable sensor plug and play integration into existing SWE-based data infrastructures is presented. First, an analysis of the operations required to automatically identify, configure and operate a sensor are analysed. Then, the metadata required for these operations is structured in a standard way. Afterwards, a modular, plug and play, SWE-based acquisition chain is proposed. Finally different use cases for this framework are presented. Full article

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is committed to developing quality open standards for the global geospatial community, thus enhancing the interoperability of geographic information. In the domain of sensor networks, the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) initiative has been developed to define the necessary context by introducing modeling standards, like ‘Observation & Measurement’ (O&M) and services to provide interaction like ‘Sensor Observation Service’ (SOS). Land surveying measurements on the other hand comprise a domain where observation information structures and services have not been aligned to the OGC observation model. In this paper, an OGC-compatible, aligned to the ‘Observation and Measurements’ standard, model for land surveying observations has been developed and discussed. Furthermore, a case study instantiates the above model, and an SOS implementation has been developed based on the 52° North SOS platform. Finally, a visualization schema is used to produce ‘Web Map Service (WMS)’ observation maps. Even though there are elements that differentiate this work from classic ‘O&M’ modeling cases, the proposed model and flows are developed in order to provide the benefits of standardizing land surveying measurement data (cost reducing by reusability, higher precision level, data fusion of multiple sources, raw observation spatiotemporal repository access, development of Measurement-Based GIS (MBGIS)) to the geoinformation community. Full article

The worldwide Sensor Web comprises observation data from diverse sources. Each data provider may process and assess datasets differently before making them available online. This information is often invisible to end users. Therefore, publishing observation data with quality descriptions is vital as it helps users to assess the suitability of data for their applications. It is also important to capture contextual information concerning data quality such as provenance to trace back incorrect data to its origins. In the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)’s Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework, there is no sufficiently and practically applicable approach how these aspects can be systematically represented and made accessible. This paper presents Q-SOS—an extension of the OGC’s Sensor Observation Service (SOS) that supports retrieval of observation data together with quality descriptions. These descriptions are represented in an observation data model covering various aspects of data quality assessment. The service and the data model have been developed based on open standards and open source tools, and are productively being used to share observation data from the TERENO observatory infrastructure. We discuss the advantages of deploying the presented solutions from data provider and consumer viewpoints. Enhancements applied to the related open-source developments are also introduced. Full article

The increasing availability of sensor devices has resulted in important volumes of sensor data, which has raised the issue of making these data fully discoverable and interpretable by applications and end-users. The idea of OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) has addressed this issue by proposing a set of standards to enable accessibility of sensor data over the Web. Similarly, there is a growing interest in volunteered geographic information (VGI). Considering that several researchers have highlighted the potential of this new type of information as a complement to existing, “traditional” data, it becomes important to develop frameworks to support the integration of VGI from several sources and with other types of data. In this paper, we make a first step in this direction by proposing a framework for the semantic interoperability of sensor data and VGI. After having performed an investigation of the types of VGI applications, we have developed a conceptual model of VGI aligned with relevant ISO standards for describing geospatial features. The purpose of this model is to support the generation of common descriptions for VGI applications, which will act as interfaces to higher-level services, such as discovery and reasoning services, in order to be exploited in conjunction with sensor data by client applications. This process is described through architecture for semantic interoperability of sensor data and VGI that we have developed and that we intend to use to set guidelines for future research on integration of VGI in sensor data cyberinfrastructures. We illustrate the possibilities created by the proposed framework with a description of the various services and interfaces required to implement the framework. Full article

Current “Internet of Things” concepts point to a future where connected objects gather meaningful information about their environment and share it with other objects and people. In particular, objects embedding Human Machine Interaction (HMI), such as mobile devices and, increasingly, connected vehicles, home appliances, urban interactive infrastructures, etc., may not only be conceived as sources of sensor information, but, through interaction with their users, they can also produce highly valuable context-aware human-generated observations. We believe that the great promise offered by combining and sharing all of the different sources of information available can be realized through the integration of HMI and Semantic Sensor Web technologies. This paper presents a technological framework that harmonizes two of the most influential HMI and Sensor Web initiatives: the W3C’s Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces (MMI) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) with its semantic extension, respectively. Although the proposed framework is general enough to be applied in a variety of connected objects integrating HMI, a particular development is presented for a connected car scenario where drivers’ observations about the traffic or their environment are shared across the Semantic Sensor Web. For implementation and evaluation purposes an on-board OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) architecture was built, integrating several available HMI, Sensor Web and Semantic Web technologies. A technical performance test and a conceptual validation of the scenario with potential users are reported, with results suggesting the approach is sound. Full article

Environmental sensors have continuously improved by becoming smaller, cheaper, and more intelligent over the past years. As consequence of these technological advancements, sensors are increasingly deployed to monitor our environment. The large variety of available sensor types with often incompatible protocols complicates the integration of sensors into observing systems. The standardized Web service interfaces and data encodings defined within OGC’s Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework make sensors available over the Web and hide the heterogeneous sensor protocols from applications. So far, the SWE framework does not describe how to integrate sensors on-the-fly with minimal human intervention. The driver software which enables access to sensors has to be implemented and the measured sensor data has to be manually mapped to the SWE models. In this article we introduce a Sensor Plug & Play infrastructure for the Sensor Web by combining (1) semantic matchmaking functionality, (2) a publish/subscribe mechanism underlying the SensorWeb, as well as (3) a model for the declarative description of sensor interfaces which serves as a generic driver mechanism. We implement and evaluate our approach by applying it to an oil spill scenario. The matchmaking is realized using existing ontologies and reasoning engines and provides a strong case for the semantic integration capabilities provided by Semantic Web research. Full article

Many sensor networks have been deployed to monitor Earth’s environment, and more will follow in the future. Environmental sensors have improved continuously by becoming smaller, cheaper, and more intelligent. Due to the large number of sensor manufacturers and differing accompanying protocols, integrating diverse sensors into observation systems is not straightforward. A coherent infrastructure is needed to treat sensors in an interoperable, platform-independent and uniform way. The concept of the Sensor Web reflects such a kind of infrastructure for sharing, finding, and accessing sensors and their data across different applications. It hides the heterogeneous sensor hardware and communication protocols from the applications built on top of it. The Sensor Web Enablement initiative of the Open Geospatial Consortium standardizes web service interfaces and data encodings which can be used as building blocks for a Sensor Web. This article illustrates and analyzes the recent developments of the new generation of the Sensor Web Enablement specification framework. Further, we relate the Sensor Web to other emerging concepts such as the Web of Things and point out challenges and resulting future work topics for research on Sensor Web Enablement. Full article

The SANY IP consortium (http://www.sany-ip.eu) has recently developed several interesting service prototypes that extend the usability of the Open Geospatial Consortium “Sensor Web Enablement” (OGC SWE) architecture. One such service prototype, developed by the Austrian Research Centers, is the “cascading SOS” (SOS-X). SOS-X is a client to the underlying OGC Sensor Observation service(s) (SOS). It provides alternative access routes to users (or services) interested in accessing data. In addition to a simple cascading, SOS-X can re-format, re-organize, and merge data from several sources into a single SOS offering. Thanks to the built-in “Formula 3” prototype, a kind of time series library, SOS-X will be enabled to derive new data sets on the fly executing arbitrary algebraic operations on one or more data input streams. This article will discuss the SOS-X development status (focusing at end of 2008), further development agenda in year 2009, and possibilities for using the SOS-X outside of the SANY IP. Full article

This paper addresses the discovery of sensors within the OGC Sensor Web Enablement framework. Whereas services like the OGC Web Map Service or Web Coverage Service are already well supported through catalogue services, the field of sensor networks and the according discovery mechanisms is still a challenge. The focus within this article will be on the use of existing OGC Sensor Web components for realizing a discovery solution. After discussing the requirements for a Sensor Web discovery mechanism, an approach will be presented that was developed within the EU funded project “OSIRIS”. This solution offers mechanisms to search for sensors, exploit basic semantic relationships, harvest sensor metadata and integrate sensor discovery into already existing catalogues. Full article

The fieldserver is an Internet based observation robot that can provide an outdoor solution for monitoring environmental parameters in real-time. The data from its sensors can be collected to a central server infrastructure and published on the Internet. The information from the sensor network will contribute to monitoring and modeling on various environmental issues in Asia, including agriculture, food, pollution, disaster, climate change etc. An initiative called Sensor Asia is developing an infrastructure called Sensor Service Grid (SSG), which integrates fieldservers and Web GIS to realize easy and low cost installation and operation of ubiquitous field sensor networks. Full article