For some reason, Guanghwa Ho couldn’t post a comment to my recent post about his Sun Spot / Project Destination architecture diagram.  He sent me the following and asked that I share this with you:

There are many possible SunSpot-enabled applications I can think of. In
general, the sensor network is well suited for on-going environmental
monitoring and control. Home is nearest and most important environment
to all of us. Service providers can bundle sensor services as a rider to
their triple-play offerings. The thought is to have SunSpot based home
surveillance system connecting to Project Destination. It is managed and
control by a Carrier Home Surveillance Server (see diagram).

– User subscribes Home Surveillance Service and obtains a SunSPOT kit.
The service charge is based on the number of Spots installed and the
service level.

– Project Destination Service Manager places an entry in the service
plan. New subscription and spotIDs are added to the user profile. So we
know which sensor ‘spots’ something peculiar, and notify the user thru
pre-determined channels – cellphone, email, SMS.

– Multiple J2ME applications running on the SPOT can be enable/disable,
upgraded, downloaded via OTA from Carrier data-center (Project Destination).

– Using a cellphone or a remote PC, the user may change SunSPOT
settings, turn on/off an application on a particular spot, control home
electronics, entertainment system and appliances.

– All traffic to/from a user and data read from each Spot can be
collected, if so desired.

Some example applications:

– We can use a SPOT in each room to control lights and cooling/heating
system. There temperature sensing capabilities comes in handy to
automatically adjust the cooling/heating system for the required
temperature.

– Use a motion detector enabled SPOT on your front gate, connect it with
a camera and you would know who is approaching the gate without going
all the way over there and can open the gate with a push of a button, or
triggers MP3. Similarly, the garage door can also be automated.  The
outdoor SPOT can report the outside temperature

– A SPOT can be used as a remote control of the house. The host
application can provide a graphical user interface and take inputs from
the user. This remote can be used for TV, DVD player, Audio system, etc.

– We can make a settop the host system which has a built-in
base-station. An spot-enabled OCAP application can run on the TV.

Make your imagination fly and have fun.

Guanghwa also offered a note of caution:

Another, I will not use the grandmother example you have on
http://blogs.sun.com/identity/entry/sensor_triggered_personalized_services.
Because the falling of an elder lady is not a free fall. The speed is
not fast enough to trigger a not so sensitive SunSpot. It is not a good
idea to use sensors on the human body, particularly elders – too much
liability.

Thanks, Guanghwa, for all your great thought on this subject.