Plenario Sensor Data

I dumped my first thoughts on this topic here. Here are my current thoughts. I'm writing this out so I have more to go in in conversations with stakeholders. None of this is final, but I'm trying to get to something concrete we can implement.

Scope: Just the Web Application API

This document concerns the web developer-focused sensor data API. I think the needs of this community are different enough from the needs of the scientific community that they'll need different access methods (I'm skeptical that both can be reconciled in a single API, but I'm open to suggestions). I'll assume here that the Array of Things data producer will have a publication module that can export the data in different formats to different consumers. One such consumer will be a document store to distribute static data dumps with DOIs for scientific citation. Another consumer might be the NOAA Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System, with its own metadata requirements.

// Sample Metadata JSON for a Sensor Network

ArrayOfThings = {
    'name': 'ArrayOfThings',
    'maintainer-email': '[email protected]',
    'description': 'Brief description of this sensor network.'
    'info-link': 'https://arrayofthings.github.io/developers'
    'nodes': ['ArrayOfThings1', 'ArrayOfThings2',...],
    'topics': [
        'temperature': {
            'attributes': [
                'temperature': {
                    'type': 'numeric',
                    'unit': 'degrees Fahrenheit',
                    ...
                },
                ...
            ],
            ...
        },
        'numPeople': {
            'attributes': [
                'numPeople': [
                    'type': 'numeric',
                    'unit': 'people seen on camera',
                    ...
                ],
                'certainty': [
                    'type': 'numeric',
                    'unit': 'certainty as a fraction',
                    ...
                ],
                ...
            ],
            ...
        },
        ...
    ],
};

// Sample Metadata JSON for a Node

ArrayOfThings1 = {
    'id': 'ArrayOfThings1',
    'version': '1.2.5',
    'location': [-87.91372618, 41.64625754],
    'topics': ['temperature', 'numPeople',...],
    'derivations': [
        'temperature': [
            {
                'sensor type': 'temperature sensor',
                'sensor description': 'model DS18B20+ with +- .5 degree accuracy',
                ...
            },
            {
                'sensor type': 'temperature sensor',
                'sensor description': 'model TMP36 with +- .3 degree accuracy',
                ...
            },
            ...
        ],
        'numPeople': [
            {
                'sensor type': 'camera',
                'sensor description': 'OV7670 300KP camera',
                'algorithm': 'Szeliski 2.5.46'
                ...
            },
            ...
        ],
        ...
    ]
};

// Sample Observation JSON

{
    'id': 'ArrayOfThings1',
    'version': '1.2.5',
    'time': 1467314815,
    'readings': [
        'temperature': {
            'temperature': 89.7,
            ...
        },
        'numPeople': {
            'numPeople': 14,
            'certainty': .83,
            ...
        }
        ...
    ],
};

/* 
Remaining Questions:
Do we want single element lists for attributes and derivations?
*/