A developer and a reference board for distributed motion evaluation in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks continuously extend their practicability in real world applications and are passing their break-even to hit the consumer market. An increasing number of miniaturized wireless sensor nodes is acquirable, mostly intended to stream environmental data as well as tracking health with single node devices. A lack of distributed processing of sensor data within a cooperative network, a short lifetime or an extremely specialized design limit the use of wireless sensor nodes to specific applications. In this paper we target these drawbacks and introduce two consecutive hardware platforms - one platform for flexible development and a second miniaturized hardware platform for ambient integration in the environment. The goal is to enable applications for state-of-the-art Wireless Body Area Networks and Wireless Sensor Networks that fit the contradicting demands of a small form factor and durable network for distributed and cooperative processing. Furthermore, we focus with these platforms on optimization of energy consumption in order to extend the lifetime without maintenance. We support distributed movement evaluation with a multi-modal sensor technology for fine-grained motion tracking of a human body, for observing the structural health of buildings, for observing fences and borders or for any other versatile system.