Interactive operations for visualization of ad-hoc sensor system domains

Abstract

Embedded sensors are envisioned to provide information about a variety of environments. One use of sensors is for military intelligence gathering in the field. Typically, these sensors are manually placed in an environment. In order to know whether the appropriate domain is covered by the sensor arrangement, we build an interface that provides visualizations of the sensor domains and coverage. To assist with planning the sensor layout, our new interface allows the user to interactively specify new locations and see the effect on the domain. To verify that line-of-sight communications requirements are met, the visualizations also show the user these relationships. These simple visualizations improve the understanding of the sensor domain. The interactive 3D display gives the user a tool for planning how to best use the available resources to get information