CSIRO scientists will lead an international initiative to develop standards for sharing information collected by sensors and sensor networks over the Internet.
Dr Kerry Taylor and Amit Parashar of CSIRO's ICT Centre are to co-chair the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Semantic Sensor Network incubator group.
The incubator group is developing an ontology for different types of sensing devices, and a new standard to enable sensors to interact using the Web, in the W3C's XML format.
"Together, they will smooth the way for large scale interoperation of sensors and sensor networks-an important step in enabling a world wide web of environmental sensors," Dr Taylor said.
"This will be especially important to environmental scientists working on problems in biodiversity, water, and climate change."
CSIRO co-chairs the incubator group with Wright State University and the Open Geospatial Consortium Inc.
The W3C is an international body responsible for developing global web standards. It develops specifications, guidelines, software and web-based tools.
CSIRO's research into sensors and sensor networks aims to increase the quality, and reduce the cost, of capturing environmental data. It addresses the growing demand for information about the environmental systems that support Australia's agricultural, resource and process-based industries.
The Australian W3C Office has been hosted by CSIRO since 2005.
Image available at: http://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/mediarelease/mr09-59.html
Further Information:
Amit Parashar, ICT Centre
Ph: +61 2 6216 7062
E:amit.parashar@csiro.au
Background information available at:
http://www.csiro.au/org/W3C-Office.html
http://www.csiro.au/science/Sensors-and-network-technologies.html
Media Assistance:
Jo Finlay, ICT Centre
Ph:+61 2 93724309
Mb:+61 447 639688
E:joanne.finlay@csiro.au