There have been a wave of new innovations coming around using mobile phones as sensors. The most recent is from a company called Rhevision which spun out of UCSD. They have developed a tiny sensor that changes colr based on the presence of specific chemicals in the local environment.
(http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20005058-247.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0) This continued advancement in tiny, cheap sensors will create a whole new set of solutions around participatory sensing with enormous social benefit. Imagine knowing if the air in your office has any toxins in it? or know if there are bacteria around your cafeteria or water cooler. This used to take very expensive, and sophisticated detection equipment. Soon it may be a matter of equipping a portion of employees with new smartphones.
The upside is obvious. The downside of using people as sensors is the potential abuse of the information, especially knowing the context/location of the participating user. With this information, many agencies will have deeper windows into our lives. The trick will be to balance the protection of personal information with getting the necessary info to provide beneficial scientific results. Much like in healthcare where knowing the patents entire life cycle profile could result in better treatments, mobile sensing services will need to tread carefully and demonstrate benefit in order for users to let more information out. Whether its knowing the noise polution level in your neighborhood or your community carbon footprint, people will need to feel their data is contributing to something bigger. If this can be managed, the potential of participatory sensing is limitless.
(http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20005058-247.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0) This continued advancement in tiny, cheap sensors will create a whole new set of solutions around participatory sensing with enormous social benefit. Imagine knowing if the air in your office has any toxins in it? or know if there are bacteria around your cafeteria or water cooler. This used to take very expensive, and sophisticated detection equipment. Soon it may be a matter of equipping a portion of employees with new smartphones.
The upside is obvious. The downside of using people as sensors is the potential abuse of the information, especially knowing the context/location of the participating user. With this information, many agencies will have deeper windows into our lives. The trick will be to balance the protection of personal information with getting the necessary info to provide beneficial scientific results. Much like in healthcare where knowing the patents entire life cycle profile could result in better treatments, mobile sensing services will need to tread carefully and demonstrate benefit in order for users to let more information out. Whether its knowing the noise polution level in your neighborhood or your community carbon footprint, people will need to feel their data is contributing to something bigger. If this can be managed, the potential of participatory sensing is limitless.
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