Projects

Biomedical Sensors. We are developing the networking protocols required to support wireless transmission of data and control information between an artificial retina or cortical implant and external glasses with a built-in camera that records and processes images. Our goal is to restore vision to visually-impaired and blind individuals. We also expect our research results to extend to other implanted biomedical devices.
Environmental Sensors. We are developing protocols to measure the levels of e. coli in water. These sensor measurements are gathered by a distributed network of wireless sensors that must be transmitted to a base station for further analysis, archival storage, and human response. To date, we have focused primarily on how to make sure this information is authenticated and securely transmitted while recognizing the processing and storage limitations of the sensors. This has significant application to timely detection of contaminated public beaches.

Besides these two major projects, we are developing protocols to support scalable wireless sensor networks. As described on the lab home page, our vision of the future is widely disseminated sensor nodes. Protocols must be scalable in order to support many sensor nodes. Although the computation and storage capabilities of sensor nodes will continue to increase, protocol design is a fundamental component of achieving the full potential of wireless sensors.