Mapping Life
In the past, mapping landforms, coastlines, and rivers was a navigational necessity. As maps improved in accuracy, and humans became more reliant on them, mapping the location of habitations and their links grew in popularity. Nowadays, maps are primarily associated with physical land features, the location of people, and communications and journeys undertaken. Less well mapped areas are no longer represented by shaded areas with sea monsters or other wilderness features depicted on them. The progression of mapping technology has both supported and been supported by governments, individuals and businesses such that it is now difficult to identify unmapped areas or features.
However, stepping away from well known aspects of physical and human mapping, there are countless other possibilities. Life itself is obviously a significant component of the world, and attempts thus far to map living organisms have been limited and primarily focussed on endangered species of animals. Technological developments make it possible for us to map and monitor living creatures in a much broader context including location, density and features such as temperature and heartbeat.
The industrial internet is the convergence of machines with intelligent sensors, and is defined as ‘the integration of complex physical machinery with networked sensors and software’ by General Electric. The potential of this new technology catalysed my idea of mapping life. Well-known inventions such as Google’s driver-less car already utilise sensors and sophisticated communication techniques and software to place the location of the vehicle and to effectively map its surroundings so that it can travel safely. The car’s sensors identify when animals or humans are approaching with infra-red technology, and can sense and provide dynamic ‘annotated maps’ of the objects around the vehicle.
Common uses of sensor technology at present are for monitoring machinery in industry and communications data. Their readings are gathered into databases to be compiled and used for measuring production outputs and efficiency or human activity. These sorts of sensors can monitor vibrations, heat, and other relevant factors. Over time, the uses for and types of sensors have grown and diversified. This is highlighted in a recent Scientific American article that explores how global sensor networks are extending the human nervous system. The Media Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) turned Tidmarsh Farms (a protected coastal wetland system) into a ‘sensor rich environment, with ‘sensor netwo
rks that document ecological processes’. These solar cell powered sensors can stream audio, read temperatures and measure the dissolved oxygen levels in the water. They are versatile (some sensors are submersible) and there is a variety of location specific data that these sensors can collect.
An example of a camera-sensor at Tidmarsh Farms.