Concealing the complexity of node programming in wireless sensor networks

There is a significant potential for Wireless sensor networks to be used as a general distributed measurement and monitoring system. The integration of computation, communication and sensing enables smart sensors to be built that can be adapted to a plethora of application requirements and allow for automated data collection throughout the network. However, the potential end users of this systems are domain experts, who usually do not possess the technical expertise to program, and thus operate, wireless sensor nodes, which prohibits the technology from becoming off-the-shelf equipment. In this paper, we present a method which enables the complexity of programming sensor nodes to be concealed in order to allow domain experts to use wireless sensor networks in basic applications without the requirement of technical assistance. We propose to use a computer-based specification entry, which generates a configuration parameter set to adjust the sensor node´s application behavior. The method has been implemented in a proof-of-concept system and evaluated with test subjects who possess limited programming skills. The results show that users without any prior programming knowledge, or experience with embedded systems, are capable of configuring a sensor node according to a given application scenario within minutes.