Participatory sensing, right up our alley

UMass Boston has a research cluster called Integrated Environmental Monitoring, the goal of which is to develop and use modeling and software technologies to advance the science and improve the decision making surrounding resource and environmental issues. Given our urban mission, the new wave of participatory urban sensing seems right up our alley.

Mobile phones already have some processing and sensing capabilities, so why not use them to gather and communicate information about the sounds and smells of a city for cultural or environmental or safety purposes? In this paradigm, referred to as “participatory urban sensing” by many prominent researchers including Deborah Estrin and Henri Tirri, citizens can contribute sensed data gathered via handheld devices and cell phones, and publish it directly on the web using geo-centric web interfaces such as Google Maps.

Computer scientists are busy at places like the University of Helsinki, Stanford University, Sun Labs and Microsoft Research developing these kinds of applications. Nokia has circulated a concept design for a phone that would enable just such usage. Sun has released the Sun SPOT, a sensing device the size of a smart phone. Microsoft has published SensorMap, an application that mashes up sensor data on a map interface, and provides interactive tools to selectively query sensors and visualize data, along with authenticated access to manage sensors. Portland State University even offers a practicum course on participatory and urban sensing.

Is there a market for these types of citizen sensors? Initially they could form the basis for a crowdsourced research project like the measurement of real-time air quality throughout an entire city over a year.

Eventually they could make it easier for people like Brooke Singer who created Superfund365, an online data visualization application with an accompanying email alert system. Each day for a year, starting on September 1, 2007, Superfund365 will visit one toxic site currently active in the Superfund program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The site invites the public to document the 365 sites featured in Superfund365. "Make a trip there with your camera. Bring friends, bring the whole family, even bring a picnic. Afterwards, upload your images with captions along with a longer text description of the site."

Clips of how new media artists like Brooke Singer envision citizen sensing are posted at Eyebeam, a New York City art and technology center:

Living Buildings

Superfund365

Here are some more clips of of participatory sensing from Project SUN Spot.

Do you have any doubt that participatory urban sensing has arrived? Or that artists ought to be collaborating with the computer scientists?