5 Quotes by Shankar Sastry

We can conceptualize smart buildings where the atmosphere inside each room is sensed and controlled in regions to accommodate varying preferences of its occupants. Water in the soil (and) chemical composition of the environment can be monitored and controlled inside hothouses or even in vineyards and fields. The key is to go beyond sensing the changes of physical quantities to closing the loop around the sensor webs, which means making accurate decisions based on the information.

We believe that wireless network embedded systems represent the infrastructure of the future, in that they will be used to monitor and control a number of physical infrastructures such as electric power, water, communications, oil and gas, and chemical refineries.

At (the Center), we are working at embedding sensor webs in all the key infrastructures of the state: transportation, power, refineries, water, the environment and so on. These applications are growing in number daily and we expect that motes of different sizes, capabilities and power consumption requirements will play a huge role in their future infrastructure.

Our demo successfully proved that it was possible to track multiple targets and actually to close the loop around the sensors in the sense of having pursuers catch possible evaders in the sensor field.

A related issue is the privacy of information gathered from sensor networks and how to protect the privacy rights and expectations of citizens. For example, if sensor webs have cameras attached to them, the usage of the pictures taken in public spaces is subject to a number of legal and privacy considerations that need to be built into the technology.