Wireless Sensor Networks: Technology and Applications

Wireless sensor networks are destined to see widespread adoption in such diverse sectors as industrial process control, health care, and home automation. The promise and application domain of this field continues to grow, but several false-starts have limited deployments to date. Recent technological breakthroughs in reliability and power consumption have enabled new "industrial strength" networks to finally deliver on the promise of this exciting technology. Brutal standards battles between multi-billion-dollar companies attest to the commercial impact that the technology is now enjoying. This talk will cover some of the history of the field, along with the problems and their solutions, commercial applications, and research directions.