Big Thinker Deborah Estrin at Yahoo

NEWS
Apr 13, 2011

Deborah Estrin recently visited Yahoo in Santa Clara to extol the possibilities of modern sensor networks. According to Estrin, sensor networks have been popular for many decades and much research has been done on distributed seismic networks, for example. But these networks are expensive to set up and maintain. The good news is, there is now amazing data available from sensors that we carry. She argues, "If you can't go to the field with the sensor you want, go with the sensor you have!" She described health sensors and location sensors that tell much about the user. This everyday data is important, because the medical system doesn't see the normal data, only the state of the patient when there is a medical intervention. Estrin also claims that mobile phones create the ultimate distributed sensor network. The large number of people carrying mobile phones enables a new form of participatory data gathering. Mobile phones in the hands of an average person is an attractive means of data collection because of a mobile phone’s close proximity to people and because it serves multiple purposes, making it low cost and scalable. She said, "The power of the internet, the reach of the phone (Voxiva)." Now we get to see what we can accomplish with all this wonderful data about ourselves.