by RJN » Sun Aug 04, 2013 4:59 pm
It seems to me that for smartphone science to proceed, it needs (at least) three basic items to be in place. The first is clear scientific questions that practical smartphone sensor data can uniquely address. The second is a basic app that simply records the raw data that smartphone sensors generate, for example in an ASCII file, and allows the smartphone user to send out this data, for example by email. The third is organization so that professional and citizen scientists can meet and share this data in a scientifically useful manner.
I am trying to collect the first -- scientific questions -- but am frequently surprised by new and interesting examples, particularly outside my usual interests. I have also been surprised that science questions that I thought would be usefully addressable by smartphones are, well, not scientifically interesting or not practically addressable. For the second -- data taking and sending -- there currently are a few apps already available that record SOME basic raw smartphone sensor data, but few of these also allow the transmission of this data. This is one thing my group has been working on (and can use help!), but it is tougher than it might seem. I am not sure how to create the third -- organization -- but possibly once the first two are sufficiently addressed, existing resources can be leveraged (eg APOD to promote projects, Asterisk to provide communication) to start.
- RJN
It seems to me that for smartphone science to proceed, it needs (at least) three basic items to be in place. The first is clear scientific questions that practical smartphone sensor data can uniquely address. The second is a basic app that simply records the raw data that smartphone sensors generate, for example in an ASCII file, and allows the smartphone user to send out this data, for example by email. The third is organization so that professional and citizen scientists can meet and share this data in a scientifically useful manner.
I am trying to collect the first -- scientific questions -- but am frequently surprised by new and interesting examples, particularly outside my usual interests. I have also been surprised that science questions that I thought would be usefully addressable by smartphones are, well, not scientifically interesting or not practically addressable. For the second -- data taking and sending -- there currently are a few apps already available that record SOME basic raw smartphone sensor data, but few of these also allow the transmission of this data. This is one thing my group has been working on (and can use help!), but it is tougher than it might seem. I am not sure how to create the third -- organization -- but possibly once the first two are sufficiently addressed, existing resources can be leveraged (eg APOD to promote projects, Asterisk to provide communication) to start.
- RJN