In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies--even our dreams. - Neil Gross, "The earth will don an electronic skin," BusinessWeek, August 1999

Millions of sensors around the globe currently collect avalanches of data about our environment. The rapid development and deployment of sensor technology involves many different types of sensors, both remote and in situ, with such diverse capabilities as range, modality, and maneuverability. It is possible today to utilize networks with multiple sensors to detect and identify objects of interest up close or from a great distance. The lack of integration and communication between these networks, however, often leaves this avalanche of data stovepiped and intensifies the existing problem of too much data and not enough knowledge.1 With a view to alleviating this glut, we propose that sensor data be annotated with semantic metadata to provide contextual information essential for situational awareness. In particular, we present an approach to annotating sensor data with spatial, temporal, and thematic semantic metadata. This technique builds on current standardization efforts within the W3C and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and extends them with semantic Web technologies to provide enhanced descriptions and access to sensor data.

• Wikipedia Article on the Semantic Sensor Web

• SAVig: Sensor Aided Vigilance

• Cory Henson
• Amit Sheth
• T.K. Prasad
• Joshua Pschorr
• Harshal Patni
• Andrew Riddle

• Amit Sheth, Cory Henson and Satya S. Sahoo, "Semantic Sensor Web," IEEE Internet Computing.
• Cory Henson, Amit Sheth, Prateek Jain, Josh Pschorr, Terry Rapoch, "Video on the Semantic Sensor Web," W3C Video on the Web Workshop, December 12-13, 2007, San Jose, CA, and Brussels, Belgium.

• Amit Sheth delivers talk, "Semantic Sensor Web" at ARC Research Network on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing, ISSNIP, Melbourne, Australia, August 1, 2008.
• Cory Henson delivers talk, "Semantic Sensor Web," at the Semantic Technology Conference, May 18-22, 2008, San Jose, California.
• Amit Sheth delivers invited talk, "Semantic Sensor Web," at the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) WG of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) held in St. Louis, MO, March 26, 2008.
• Amit Sheth delivers talk, "Semantic Sensor Web," at the Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice Special Conference, February 5, 2008, Falls Church, VA.
• Cory Henson delivers talk, "Semantic Sensor Web," at the Sensor Standards Harmonization WG Meeting, January 15, 2008, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland.
• Amit Sheth delivers talk, "Video on the Semantic Sensor Web," at the W3C Video on the Web Workshop, December 12-13, 2007, San Jose, CA, and Brussels, Belgium.
• Amit Sheth delivers talk, "Semantic Web techniques empower perception and comprehension in Cyber Situational Awareness," at the ARO Cyber Situational Awareness Workshop, November 14-15, 2007, Fairfax, VA.

• Semantic Sensor Observation Service (MesoWest) (demo)
• Video on the Semantic Sensor Web (demo)
• Semantic Sensor Observation Service for Weather Data (demo)