Supervisors/Contacts Matteo Cesana, Alessandro Redondi,

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1 Internet of Things Thesis Proposals Proposal 1: Video Streaming through Wireless Sensor Networks (June 2011) Wireless Visual Sensor Networks (WVSN) are networks of wireless devices capable of sensing multimedia content such as audio, still images and video, as well as scalar sensor data from the environment. Such multimedia networks will enable several new applications, especially in the surveillance and monitoring area. Such networks are in many ways unique and more challenging with respect to traditional sensor networks: (i) sensor devices are constrained in terms of battery, memory and computational capability while multimedia processing requires to store, process and transmit large amount of data; (ii) applications of multimedia sensor networks require real-time data from camera networks: on the one hand these requirements struggle with the network side limitations (variable channel capacity, limited bandwidth, etc...) and on the other hand with the constraints imposed by the limited energy resources and processing speed of available embedded processors. In this thesis the candidate will investigate the possibility to build an efficient MPEG-like video streaming system, starting from a hybrid DCT-DPCM existing system. The goal of this thesis is the study and design of comprehensive solutions to support video delivery in WMSNs. In particular, the work will address: The design of effective video encoding techniques based on MPEG-like standards The design of communication protocols to support video delivery over multi-hop WMSNs The final outcome of the thesis will have to be an experimental testbed featuring the developed encoding techniques and communication protocols -Simulation: Matlab (encoding techniques), TinyOS-nesC (testbed simulation) -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development), Java (development of a minimal application for video delivery in WMSNs). S. Paniga, L. Borsani, A. Redondi, M. Tagliasacchi, M. Cesana, Experimental Evaluation of a Video Streaming System for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks, MedHocNet 2011

2 Proposal 2: Image Transmission through Wireless Sensor Networks (June 2011) Wireless Visual Sensor Networks (WVSN) are networks of wireless devices capable of sensing multimedia content such as audio, still images and video, as well as scalar sensor data from the environment. Such multimedia networks will enable several new applications, especially in the surveillance and monitoring area. Such networks are in many ways unique and more challenging with respect to traditional sensor networks: (i) sensor devices are constrained in terms of battery, memory and computational capability while multimedia processing requires to store, process and transmit large amount of data; (ii) applications of multimedia sensor networks require real-time data from camera networks: on the one hand these requirements struggle with the network side limitations (variable channel capacity, limited bandwidth, etc...) and on the other hand with the constraints imposed by the limited energy resources and processing speed of available embedded processors. In this thesis, different image coding and transmission schemes for WSNs will be analyzed, implemented and evaluated. In particular, the work will include: The design of effective image compression techniques to be implemented on sensor nodes (JPG, progressive JPG, etc.) The design of effective communication protocols to deliver the compressed images remotely through multi-hop networks -Simulation: Matlab (encoding techniques), TinyOS-nesC (testbed simulation) -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development), Java (development of a minimal application for image delivery in WMSNs). J. Romberg, Imaging via Compressive Sampling

3 Proposal 3: Audio Assisted Living (June 2011) One of the greatest challenges in Ambient Assisted Living is to design smart homes that could be able to anticipate the needs of its inhabitant while maintaining their comfort and their safety with an adaptation of the house environment and a facilitation of the connections to the outside world. Sensor nodes can be geared of multi-media sensors including cameras, microphones and speakers. In the field of monitoring applications for WSNs, such multimedia hardware can be leveraged to implement safety-oriented application and integrated surveillance systems. As an example, the wireless sensor networks can be used to convey vocal commands or to pervasively recognize words and/or sounds which may trigger some type of reaction of the integrated surveillance system (human intervention, on demand activation of video cameras, etc.). All these applications build upon the capability of the sensor and the sensor networks to recognize acoustic patterns. In this thesis a complete audio based assisted living system will be implemented and deployed, through the design of suitable on/off-mote data compression schemes and audio analysis algorithms. The work will include: The study of energy efficient algorithms for recognizing audio patterns through commercial sensor hardware. The study of the most proper means to deliver the audio patterns through multi-hop wireless sensor networks. -Simulation: Matlab (to test audio pattern recognition techniques), TinyOS-nesC (to implement/simulate the audio pattern recognition techniques on sensor nodes) -Testbed Experimental study: TinyOS-nesC (testbed development), Java (development of a minimal application for audio recognition in WMSNs). Vacher, M. ; Portet, F. ; Fleury, A. ; Noury, N. ; Challenges in the Processing of Audio Channels for Ambient Assisted Living LIG Lab., UJF, Grenoble, France Berisha, V. ; Homin Kwon ; Spanias, A. ; Real-time acoustic monitoring using wireless sensor motes Dept. of Electr. Eng., Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ

4 Proposal 4: Street Quality Detection for bikers (June 2011) Have you ever cursed your local administration while riding your bike through bumpy streets full of potholes? If so, you may be interested to work on this thesis project whose aim is to develop a pothole detection systems for bikers based on wireless sensor networks. The biker (or the bike) can be geared with wireless sensors with accelerometers and gyroscopes which can be leveraged to detect discontinuities and holes on the street surface. The thesis will include the following contributions: the study and design of effective algorithms to process the accelerometers signals to detect and assess the quality of the street surface. the study of transmission mechanism to deliver the sampled (and processed) signal to a cell phone the implementation of a lightweight application to display the results of the analysis (the application might leverage positioning information) -Simulation: Matlab (to test holes detection algorithms), TinyOS-nesC (to implement/simulate the detection techniques on sensor nodes) -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development), Java/Android (development of a minimal application) Signal Processing Fundamentals Fundamentals of programming languages (C/C++/Java) J. Eriksson, L. Girod, B. Hull, R. Newton, S. Madden, and H. Balakrishnan, The pothole patrol: using a mobile sensor network for road surface monitoring, ACM MobiSys '08. Advisor/Contacts

5 Proposal 5: 3D Localization Solutions (June 2011) Localization has been an important topic in data-centric wireless sensor networks (WSNs) due to the special association between location information and the relevance of sensory data. Although most proposed approaches have been modeled for 2D space, a gradual but marked shift in the focus of 3D localization has taken place. In this thesis the candidate will implement and evaluate a 3D localization algorithm on a Wireless Sensor Network, including the development of a Graphic User Interface. TinyOS, Matlab, Java Chia-Yen Shih, P.J. Marró, COLA: Complexity-Reduced Trilateration Approach for 3D Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks Dept. of Comput. & Cognitive Sci., Univ. Duisburg-Essen & Fraunhofer IAIS, Duisburg, Germany A. Redondi,; M. Tagliasacchi, M. Cesana, L. Borsani, P. Tarrío, F. Salice, LAURA LocAlization and Ubiquitous monitoring of patients for health care support, IEEE APLEC 2010 Advisor/Contacts

6 Proposal 6: Virtual Trainer for Running (June 2011) Recent technological advances in integrated circuits, wireless communications, and physiological sensing have boosted the development of miniaturized, lightweight, ultralow power, intelligent monitoring devices. A number of these devices can be integrated to form a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN), a wireless sensor network whose devices, called motes, are positioned on the body of a person to monitor biometric parameters and vital signs. To this extent, the latest advances in Mirco-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology have opened up the opportunity to realize miniaturized accelerometers, a sensing element that measures acceleration. Such system can help the user during the exercise providing him a feedback to avoid errors which can cause hurts. The goal of this thesis is the realization of an automatic system for the supervision of jogging/running exercises. The systems will be composed of wearable sensor nodes positioned on body to capture and process acceleration samples gathered through accelerometers, and to transmit remotely the collected information. In a nutshell, the thesis objective can be summarized in the following points: To study effective algorithms to acquire data from accelerometers To study effective algorithms to process the aforementioned data to give a quality indicator to the jogging/running gesture To study effective solutions to collect and deliver the information remotely -Simulation: Matlab (to test acceleration analysis algorithms), TinyOS-nesC (to implement/simulate the detection techniques on sensor nodes) -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development), Java/Android (development of a minimal application) Signal Processing Fundamentals Fundamentals of programming languages (C/C++/Java) Stefano Melzi, Luca Borsani, Matteo Cesana, The Virtual Trainer: Supervising Movements Through a Wearable Wireless Sensor Network, IEEE Secon 2009 Advisor/Contacts

7 Proposal 7: ECG through WSNs (June 2011) Sensor nodes are currently available to capture Electro Cardio Graphic signals from nomadic patients which can then be remotely delivered through wireless transmissions to other devices (e.g., cell phones and PDAs). This thesis will target the realization of a comprehensive system for real-time ECG through sensor nodes. The work will include: the analysis of proper compression techniques for ECG samples the realization of proper transmissions techniques to deliver the collected sensors remotely the realization of an application to provide ECG feedback to the end user (possibly for mobile terminals) -Simulation: Matlab (to test sample acquisition and compression techniques), TinyOSnesC (to implement/simulate the detection techniques on sensor nodes) -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development), Java/Android (development of a minimal application) Signal Processing Fundamentals Fundamentals of programming languages (C/C++/Java) Notes Chulsung Park; Chou, P.H.; Ying Bai; Matthews, R.; Hibbs, A.;, "An ultra-wearable, wireless, low power ECG monitoring system," IEEE BioCAS Advisor/Contacts

8 Proposal 8: Visual Analysis in Wireless Sensor Networks (October 2011) Traditionally, smart cameras perform image acquisition, and compression locally, sending away a compact representation of the fetched image which is then analysed remotely. Such paradigm may not be suited to wireless sensor network where delivering remotely a compressed image or even a sequence of images may be impaired (or simply impossible) due to the limited resources (bandwidth, energy, etc.). Enabling visual analysis in energy-constrained WSNs requires departing from traditional solutions and pursuing a paradigm shift that affects the way visual data is sensed, processed and transmitted. The key tenet is that most visual analysis tasks can be carried out based on a succinct representation of the image, which entails both global and local features, while it disregards the underlying pixel-level representation. In a nutshell, sensor camera may extract and send only a succinct representation of the captured image rather than delivering the full-fledged image itself. To this extent, it is imperative to optimize the computation, coding and communication of the visual features. That is, image features are collected by sensing nodes, are processed, and are then delivered to the final destination(s) in order to enable higher level visual analysis tasks by means of either centralized or distributed detectors and classifiers. All these steps are subject to tight application-dependent requirements (bandwidth/delay guarantees), and may be affected by network conditions, communication and hardware constraints. Such paradigm shift in the coding/processing functionalities calls for enhanced and innovative networking algorithms and protocols. The goal of this thesis is the study and design of comprehensive solutions to support feature extraction in WMSNs. In particular, the work will address: The design of effective feature extraction, coding algorithms for sensor cameras The design of coordination/orchestration protocols to support distributed processing of features among neighboring sensor nodes The design of communication protocols to support feature delivery over multi-hop WMSNs -Simulation: Matlab (encoding techniques), TinyOS-nesC (testbed simulation) -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development and Notes The proposal can give raise to different theses,

9 Proposal 9: Implementation of a CoAP-Enabled Wireless Sensor Network (October 2011) A recent initiative of the IETF has been launched to standardize an application layer protocol for constrained devices/networks. The reference protocol is called Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) and is devised to mimic the HTTP REST-full communication paradigm. CoAP provides methods and commands to interrogate a sensor device (equivalent to HTTP GET commands) and to modify the status of the sensor itself. The goal of this thesis is the implementation of CoAP in a wireless sensor network based on TinyOS to showcase the performances of the CoAP in terms of latency and robustness. CoAP libraries are already available (see reference []), so the required work load and novelty makes this proposal more suited to a short thesis. The final outcome of the thesis will have to be an experimental testbed running CoAP over TinyOS. -Testbed Experimental study: TintOS-nesC (testbed development), CoAP libraries [1] Web Site of the IETF working group standardizing CoAP [2] Research paper describing the implemnetation of the CoAP