Wayland, Mass., July 20, 2006 – The membership of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) has approved and released the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) White Paper as an official public OGC White Paper (OGC Document 06-046r2).
A sensor network is a computer accessible network of many spatially distributed devices using sensors to monitor conditions at different locations, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants. A Sensor Web refers to Web accessible sensor networks and archived sensor data that can be discovered and accessed using standard protocols and interfaces.
In the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) activity, members of the OGC are defining, testing, and documenting a consistent framework of open standards for exploiting Web-connected sensors and sensor systems of any type. Sensor Web Enablement presents many opportunities for adding a real-time sensor dimension to the Internet and the Web. This has extraordinary significance for science, environmental monitoring, transportation management, public safety, facility security, disaster management, utilities' SCADA operations, industrial controls, facilities management and many other domains of activity. The OGC voluntary consensus standards setting process coupled with strong international industry and government support in domains that depend on sensors is expected to result in SWE specifications that will become established in all application areas where such standards are of use.
The OGC® is an international industry consortium of more than 300 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.
“