DCU scientists want to wire us up to the world wide web, literally, using sensor technology, writes Dick Ahlstrom
The term "getting wired" takes on new meaning in a research initiative at Dublin City University where a group headed by Prof Dermot Diamond wants to connect us physically into the world wide web.
There are immense technological hurdles but also many real world benefits that could come from the research, says Diamond, who is professor of analytical chemistry and director of the Adaptive Information Cluster, an initiative which partners DCU and University College Dublin.
"The theme I have been following for the last five or six years is pervasive communications and computing," says Diamond who is funded by Science Foundation Ireland. The concept is based on the idea that computing power and the ability to communicate "will be available everywhere on demand".
He isn't just talking about voice, e-mail and images over the web. He pictures a situation where we will be connected physically as well.
"The data on the internet is dominated by what people are typing in or putting in as pictures or video. It is media-dominated and relies on human input," he explains.
"The next phase of this is where the pervasive web becomes wired to sensors because the range of information you can get into the web will be expanded."
You can view this as Big Brother watching your every move, but introducing "body sensor networks" could be a boon to those who need them, for example the elderly or those whose movement is impaired.
Also known as "ambient assisted living", it comes in for major research support under the EU's seventh framework programme.
"The emphasis is to keep people out of hospital and improve their quality of life. It is being able to monitor people's activity and well being, their wellness," says Diamond.
His group is studying modified foams and conducting polymers that send signals when compressed or stretched. These could indicate whether an isolated individual was moving about through normal daily routines. Any sudden change to an individual's established routines would be flagged by the system, based on information coming in from wearable sensors on the individual.
"We are working with sports science people to develop a vest that monitors breathing," he says.
You wear these sensors and they relay information over the internet using built-in communications. International groups have developed what are known as "motes", tiny coin-sized remote sensors that can communicate with each other in a network.
Diamond's group has joined the University College Cork's Tyndall Institute to develop Irish-made motes that can provide this networked capability.
The idea is to go from dozens of sensors to millions of sensors, all networked and providing information about the environment, about the safety of food products and other "real world" uses, says Diamond.
The idea is to force down the cost of the motes through technological advances. The question is: "How do you make sensors cheap enough and small enough and reliable enough", he says.
His group is working on a food quality monitoring system that can track the temperature at which fish and shellfish have been stored from the time they are taken from the water until they are cooked.
Another idea being studied is a dye in packaging that changes colour if a product begins to spoil. A reader detects the colour change and feeds this information to a central database.
The greatest challenge, however, is to get biological information directly into the computer, Diamond suggests.
"How do we bring chemical information and biological information into the digital world. How do we bridge the molecular and biological world and the technological world."
This is currently done via laboratory equipment. "How do you get these measurements out of the lab and into the internet world?" he asks.
Existing biosensors tend to be simple transducers and not true sensors, he says, thermistors for temperature, photodetectors for light.
"They are not really sampling the molecular world. They tell you something about it but are not really connected to it."
He pictures a situation where true chemical sensors will be able to connect directly to the individual to provide information about health status.