In many scenarios, it is relevant to be able to collect data readings from specific locations. This could be relevant to disaster scenarios where it is desired to get readings from specific regions. It could also be the case that different types of data are relevant depending on your location.

The project

In this project, we develop a smartphone application that supports location-triggered data collection. The idea is to maintain a small database of locations with associated actions. When the phone comes to one of the specified locations, the associated action should occur. The action itself could be collecting a sound clip, saving sensor data, initiating a data transfer, taking a picture etc. The application should be flexible enough to support new types of actions in the future without major rewriting. It should also be possible to dynamically add new locations/actions without having to restart the application. There should also be some way to transfer collected data to an external computer in a simple way with a minimum of user interaction.

A larger version of the project could include support for different types of methods to get new locations/actions to trigger on. One approach could be to provide this information as a RSS feed that supports both adding and removing new rules. Another approach could be to listen to twitter messages containing specific hashtags together with information on what type of data to collect from where.

The application should be for non-rooted android phones with the ambition that "anyone" should be able to install it and turn their Android phone into a automated data collection device that automatically will collect data when arriving to a location where data collection is desired.

The team

Size 3 - 6 persons. If larger than four, two persons should make a complementary scientific study on participatory sensing for supervising ecological sensitive remote areas.

Equipment

1-2 smartphones

Adviser

Frederik Hermans, Christian Rohner responsible for project.