A Data Visualization and Interpretation System for Sensor Netwroks

With the increase in applications for sensor networks, data manipulation and representation have become a crucial component of sensor networks. This chapter explores an implementation to process and interpret the data gathered by sensor networks. In a project supported by SensIT program at DARPA, we have built wireless sensor networks deployed to monitor rare plants or other endangered species. The environmental data, such as temperature, rainfall, and sunlight, around the plants are sent by the wireless sensor networks to a base station. The system presented in this chapter combines database management technology, geographic information system, and Web development technology to visualize the data gathered by the wireless sensor networks. The integration of our data visualization tools and the online collaborative discussion environment makes the system useful to different communities of potential users. INtrODUctION Of all the global problems in the biosphere we confront today, few would argue that the extinction of species and destruction of ecosystems have the most serious consequences, and they are irreversible. Worldwide, the preservation of rare species presents a major challenge. In Hawaii, there are numerous species of plants and animals. Many of them are found only in Hawaii and are currently threatened or endangered. In order to monitor the ecological environment and events around rare plants, the Pods project at the University of Hawaii has started to build wireless ad-hoc sensor networks (Biagioni & Bridges, 2002). A sensor network is a computer network made up of many spatially-distributed sensors which are used to monitor conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion, or pollutants. These sensors are usually small and inexpensive, so they can be deployed in large numbers. In a wireless ad hoc sensor