The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

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The Environmental Protection Agency

The evolution of ubiquitous sensing technologies has led to intelligent environments that can monitor and react to our daily activities, such as adapting our heating and cooling systems, responding to our gestures, and monitoring our elderly. In this paper, we ask whether it is possible for smart environments to monitor our vital signs remotely, without instrumenting our bodies. We introduce Vital-Radio, a wireless sensing technology that monitors breathing and heart rate without body contact. Vital-Radio exploits the fact that wireless signals are affected by motion in the environment, including chest movements due to inhaling and exhaling and skin vibrations due to heartbeats. We describe the operation of Vital-Radio and demonstrate through a user study that it can track users' breathing and heart rates with a median accuracy of 99%, even when users are 8~meters away from the device, or in a different room. Furthermore, it can monitor the vital signs of multiple people simultaneously. We envision that Vital-Radio can enable smart homes that monitor people's vital signs without body instrumentation, and actively contribute to their inhabitants' well-being.

/pdf/smart-homes-that-monitor-breathing-and-heart-rate-425fzf6qc1.pdf

Smart Homes that Monitor Breathing and Heart Rate

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) monitor dynamic environments that change rapidly over time. This dynamic behavior is either caused by external factors or initiated by the system designers themselves. To adapt to such conditions, sensor networks often adopt machine learning techniques to eliminate the need for unnecessary redesign. Machine learning also inspires many practical solutions that maximize resource utilization and prolong the lifespan of the network. In this paper, we present an extensive literature review over the period 2002–2013 of machine learning methods that were used to address common issues in WSNs. The advantages and disadvantages of each proposed algorithm are evaluated against the corresponding problem. We also provide a comparative guide to aid WSN designers in developing suitable machine learning solutions for their specific application challenges.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3963&context=sis_research

Machine Learning in Wireless Sensor Networks: Algorithms, Strategies, and Applications

Photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement

Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) is the extraction of vehicle license plate information from an image or a sequence of images. The extracted information can be used with or without a database in many applications, such as electronic payment systems (toll payment, parking fee payment), and freeway and arterial monitoring systems for traffic surveillance. The ALPR uses either a color, black and white, or infrared camera to take images. The quality of the acquired images is a major factor in the success of the ALPR. ALPR as a real-life application has to quickly and successfully process license plates under different environmental conditions, such as indoors, outdoors, day or night time. It should also be generalized to process license plates from different nations, provinces, or states. These plates usually contain different colors, are written in different languages, and use different fonts; some plates may have a single color background and others have background images. The license plates can be partially occluded by dirt, lighting, and towing accessories on the car. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art techniques for ALPR. We categorize different ALPR techniques according to the features they used for each stage, and compare them in terms of pros, cons, recognition accuracy, and processing speed. Future forecasts of ALPR are given at the end.

https://romisatriawahono.net/lecture/rm/survey/computer%20vision/Du%20-%20Automatic%20License%20Plate%20Recognition%20-%202013.pdf

Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR): A State-of-the-Art Review

In this paper the authors describe the Portuguese system set-up by the national authority in charge of monitoring, control and manage the electromagnetic spectrum to fulfill the mission legally assigned to it. The system is a distributed one composed of four nodes — monitoring and control centers (MCCs) — and the paper describes system's evolution from a set of manual, local operated centers to a fully integrated, automated system whose nodes can be remotely operated.

Automated and remote operated system for spectrum monitoring and control in Portugal

The use of greenhouses with controlled microclimate according to the plants needs is an important way to increase the production of fruits and vegetables and has recently become one of the hottest topics in precision agriculture. In order to know and to control the greenhouse microclimate, smart sensing nodes with wireless communication capabilities are recommended. As one of the promissory protocols associated with wireless sensor networks can be mentioned ZigBee due to its low cost, low power consumption, extended ranges and architecture flexibility. In the present work, a network of sensing and control nodes with ZigBee communication capabilities is considered. The microclimate is monitored using a set of solid state sensors for temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, and CO2 concentration since these parameters play an important role in plant growing. Every sensor node is autonomous by using energy from a solar cell through a battery charger circuit considering also the powering of the sensing and control node during the night periods. The data from the ZigBee network nodes are sent to a wirelessEthernet gateway connected to a computer running a LabVIEW application that performs primary processing and to a web geographic information system that provides information about the greenhouse microclimate. Elements related to power harvesting for the implemented wireless sensor network, as well as a set of experimental results are included in the present work.

Greenhouses microclimate real-time monitoring based on a wireless sensor network and gis

The paper presents a new approach to store and read Transducer Electronic Data Sheets (TEDS) compliant with the IEEE 1451.4 standard. The idea is to take the bit stream of the TEDS structure and store it on a non-volatile, easy-to-read, cheap support as is the case of 2D bar codes. The TEDS structure can thus be stuck to the transducer case or printed on catalogues, ready to be read anytime and anywhere by a scanner device. Experimental tests involving a Pt100 and a semiconductor temperature sensor are described to illustrate the concept. The tests include the generation of TEDS structures, their conversion to 2D bar codes and their reading back. The encoding is done online using a free web service; the decoding is done offline using a simple webcam and some image processing functions. LabVIEW code is presented to illustrate the encoding and decoding processes.

Transducer Electronic Data Sheets: Why not print them?

This paper introduces the use of a Hall effect sensor as the main part of a microcontroller-based power measurement system. The system is designed around 8 bit microcontroller PIC16F84 that performs the acquisition, processing and display of sensor's data. In order to reduce the undesired influence of the temperature on system's accuracy, an additional temperature sensor (ON-400 thermistor) and a temperature correction software component are introduced. Referring to the analog to digital conversion of the sensor data, a two-channel pulse-width modulated scheme is implemented based on microcontroller's digital input-output lines. The instantaneous power is displayed using a LCD display controlled by a Hitachi 44780 controller.

A temperature compensated power measurement system based on a Hall effect sensor

In the present article, the design and implementation of a dew point (T/sub DP/) smart measuring system characterized by high accuracy and repeatability is presented. The system implements also a relative humidity sensing structure based on the acquired data associated to dew point and ambient temperature measuring channels. The main elements of the measuring system include an optical system based on a bifurcated fiber bundle, a mirror, a laser diode and a narrow band optical detector. Mirror cooling is made using a current mode powered Peltier heat pump. The current control is performed using a data acquisition board programmed with LabVIEW software.

Pedro Silva Girao

Papers

Automated and remote operated system for spectrum monitoring and control in Portugal

Greenhouses microclimate real-time monitoring based on a wireless sensor network and gis

Transducer Electronic Data Sheets: Why not print them?

A temperature compensated power measurement system based on a Hall effect sensor

Dew point and relative humidity smart measuring system