SBIR Phase II: TerraFly-based System for Querying and Control of Mobile Devices

The innovation is a System and Application Programming Interface, data services and device control, coupling geospatial visualization and database technologies with mobile sensor networks. A product line will be developed, beginning with a map-based streaming media and moving objects video console. Currently available geospatial applications cannot handle real-time, dynamic Big Data. Many government and corporate customers need to combine and analyze information from multiple sources of real-time and historical data. The innovation combines advanced geospatial visualization and analytics technologies with location-based media streaming technology, to produce a map-based streaming media and moving objects video console. This system reduces information overload in accessing a multitude of video streams from moving sensors. Users can select a location, retrieve multimedia data from sensors in the area and view streaming videos in real time that are synchronized with corresponding locations on a map. The product leverages TerraFly technology developed at an NSF Center at Florida International University (FIU). The Product Line will enable complex analysis of data in geographic space and time; it will allow map-based view and control of multitudes of moving objects and data streams. Several agencies, including DHS, have documented the need for this product and are co-sponsoring TerraFly applications. The broader/commercial impact includes the potential to transform disaster mitigation command and control with easy-to-use technology that dramatically improves user's ability to know what is currently going on in specific locations should a disaster strike. This will allow these professionals to focus on the work that they need to accomplish instead of dealing with the technology, ultimately saving lives and property. This project, in collaboration with FIU, a Minority-serving University, will create high-tech jobs and careers for Florida students. International impact includes knowledge exchange via the Latin American GRID (a coalition of computer scientists led by the FIU Center), student research missions via the NSF international outreach projects at FIU, and TerraFly assistance to Haiti, Columbia, Brazil, and Chile in disaster and epidemics mapping. The system's educational module will facilitate studies of computing and the environment nationwide and within FIU coursework. The system will be disseminated via TerraFly leveraging prior exposure in scientific and popular media, including Fox TV News, NPR, New York Times, USA Today, Science, and Nature.