Towards reliable multimodal sensing in aware environments

A prototype system for implementing a reliable sensor network for large scale smart environments is presented. Most applications within any form of smart environments (rooms, offices, homes, etc.) are dependent on reliable who, where, when, and what information of its inhabitants (users). This information can be inferred from different sensors spread throughout the space. However, isolated sensing technologies provide limited information under the varying, dynamic, and long-term scenarios (24/7), that are inherent in applications for intelligent environments. In this paper, we present a prototype system that provides an infrastructure for leveraging the strengths of different sensors and processes used for the interpretation of their collective data. We describe the needs of such systems, propose an architecture to dealwith such multi-modal fusion, and discuss the initial set of sensors and processes used to address such needs.