Chapter 17
Closing Comments
A successful application of sensor networks is to prevent possible future disasters by analyzing the sensor-based data collected over long periods of time. A case in point is tsunami warnings. Tsunamis can be described as very long-wavelength waves of water caused by a sudden displacement of the ocean bed. The rate at which a wave loses energy is inversely related to its wavelength and its velocity, and directly proportional to water depth. Most tsunamis are caused by undersea earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, or meteor impacts, and are usually preceded by seismic disturbances. In case of inland seismic events, there exists a worldwide network of sensors. A similar network is conspicuously absent for events originating at sea. Sensor-based tsunami warning systems have proved to be effective in Japan and the United States. The currently operational system for tsunami detection, called “deep-ocean assessment and reporting of tsunami” (DART) is very useful for the tracking of tsunami warnings. The distributed sensor network will certainly advance the state of the art in wireless tsunami-based sensor networks by designing in expensive, expendable, and massively deployable innovative sensors.
It would be very interesting to integrate these types of sensor networks with social networks where cellular sensors can infiltrate people’s everyday lives, thereby providing real-time information about their surroundings. Thus, online sensor-based networks ...
