Wireless sensor network
hideA wireless sensor network (WSN) is a wireless network consisting of spatially distributed autonomous devices using sensors to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different locations. The development of wireless sensor networks was originally motivated by military applications such as battlefield surveillance. However, wireless sensor networks are now used in many industrial and civilian application areas, including industrial process monitoring and control, machine health monitoring, environment and habitat monitoring, healthcare applications, home automation, and traffic control.
In addition to one or more sensors, each node in a sensor network is typically equipped with a radio transceiver or other wireless communications device, a small microcontroller, and an energy source, usually a battery. The envisaged size of a single sensor node can vary from shoebox-sized nodes down to devices the size of grain of dust, although functioning 'motes' of genuine microscopic dimensions have yet to be created. The cost of sensor nodes is similarly variable, ranging from hundreds of pounds to a few pence , depending on the size of the sensor network and the complexity required of individual sensor nodes. Size and cost constraints on sensor nodes result in corresponding constraints on resources such as energy, memory, computational speed and bandwidth.
A sensor network normally constitutes a wireless ad-hoc network, meaning that each sensor supports a multi-hop routing algorithm (several nodes may forward data packets to the base station).
In computer science and telecommunications, wireless sensor networks are an active research area with numerous workshops and conferences arranged each year.
For more information about Wireless sensor network, read the full article at
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News tagged with wireless sensor network
Students create portable device to detect suicide bombers (w/ Video)
Jun 24, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (9) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the weapons of suicide bombers, are a major cause of soldier casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. A group of University of Michigan engineering undergraduate students have ...
Drinking water watched by Queensland's seventh sense
May 13, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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One of the major sources of drinking water for south-east Queensland is now under the watchful eye of Australia's largest integrated intelligent wireless sensor network.
Revolutionary sensor system protects ports, bridges and distribution centres
Apr 27, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Özlem Durmaz Incel, researcher at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, has developed a spectacular new method that enables wireless sensor networks to function up to ten times more efficiently. Networks ...
Network turns soldiers' helmets into sniper location system
Mar 24, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (17) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine a platoon of soldiers fighting in a hazardous urban environment who carry personal digital assistants that can display the location of enemy shooters in three dimensions and accurately ...
Search results for wireless sensor network
Bridging the gap between wireless sensor networks and the scientists who use them
Apr 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new, simpler programming language for wireless sensor networks is designed for easy use by geologists who might use them to monitor volcanoes and biologists who rely on them to understand birds' nesting ...
SRNL, automakers to develop high-performance wireless sensors networks
Aug 25, 2009 |
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Several industries use wireless sensors, which can monitor chemical processes or equipment activity and then transmit the data over a wireless network. Still, many facilities that could benefit from the use of wireless sensors ...
Rainforest rehab in every sense
Jun 12, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Sophisticated sensors that measure leaf wetness, soil moisture and temperature are helping rehabilitate rainforest in the Springbrook World Heritage precinct in south-east Queensland.
AT&T to double wireless data speeds in 6 cities
Sep 09, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte, N.C., will be the first cities to see the benefits of AT&T's plans to double the data download speeds on its wireless network. The six cities will be upgraded ...
Demand for wireless networks growing
Sep 07, 2005 |
2 / 5 (2) |
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Demand for wireless sensor networking is growing and deployments are accelerating, according to a recently published report by ON World.
Wireless drug control
Biology /
Feb 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Electronic implants that dispense medicines automatically or via a wireless medical network are on the horizon. Australian and US researchers warn of the security risks in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of ...
Networks of the Future: Extending Our Senses into the Physical World
Technology / Computer Sciences
Aug 13, 2008 |
4.5 / 5 (19) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- The picture of a future with wireless sensor networks-webs of sensory devices that function without a central infrastructure--is quickly coming into sharper focus through the work of Los Alamos National Laboratory ...
Wireless sensors learn from life
Aug 25, 2008 |
3.6 / 5 (8) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- European and Indian researchers are applying principles learned from living organisms to design self-organising networks of wireless sensors suitable for a wide range of environmental monitoring purposes.
Verizon Wireless uses new network for first time
Aug 14, 2009 |
3 / 5 (1) |
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(AP) -- Verizon Wireless says it has completed the first calls using a brand-new network that's planned to go live next year, offering faster Internet speeds.
Cambridge to host first city-wide wireless sensor network
Technology / Computer Sciences
Apr 05, 2007 |
3.8 / 5 (4) |
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Harvard University, BBN Technologies, and the City of Cambridge have begun a four-year project to install 100 wireless sensors atop streetlights in Cambridge, Mass., creating the world's first city-wide network of wireless ...
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