Watchtower -- A service oriented sensor web framework for educational and academic purposes

The idea of creating world-wide networks for the dissemination of sensor data has been driven by the increasing availability and widespread installation of low-cost, networked sensor systems. It can be expected that these type of networks, which are often referred to as sensor Webs, will play an important role in the future of information technology. It has therefore been our intention to create a software platform, which supports teaching and research activities in this field. By preferring ease of use and under standability to completeness and large-scale applicability, we envision a system that provides a platform for advanced high school and undergraduate college students to experiment with sensor Webs and to learn about the relevant technologies. We have chosen a modular, three-tier system approach, where a central Web service, the Watchtower, establishes the connection between sensor adaptors, so-called Scouts, and application adaptors, so-called Sentries. While Watchtower is written in Ruby, utilizing the Ruby on Rails framework, Scouts and Sentries can be programmed in any language. This should make it possible for anyone with some knowledge of a contemporary programming language to make use of the proposed framework.