Pervasive Technology and Mobile Computing

The realisation that pervasive technology can provide a direct link between data and people has crystallised into the idea of participatory sensing, which appropriates everyday mobile devices such as cellular phones to form interactive sensor networks that enable public and professional users to gather, analyse and share local knowledge.

Its potential for data collection at a high granularity in space and time, very difficult for scientists to achieve otherwise, together with its potential for citizen involvement at all layers of society, make this an extremely promising tool for monitoring and managing the environment.