Experiment Design: Facilitating Awareness to Rapid Development

In general, there is a significant gap between consumer technology development and technology intended for scientific use. However, the two seem to be on an exponentially accelerated path to collision and have been for some time. For example, the core development of smart phones developed almost completely outside the concept of designing instruments for science. It's true that research specific to cellular transmission, graphics acceleration, hardware improvement, ect, can often be attributed to academic research...however, the product itself, the smart phone, is entirely designed for general consumer / commodity use. It was only after mass use did scientists start to realize the potential of the mobile sensors, data collection, visualization, and other uses specific to the need of experiments. At the same time, the pure science development being released for mass consumption (LDAP protocol is a good example) in a final form has reduced over the years. This disconnect, which came about organically from the pace of technological invention, has left a large void in which science could be capitalizing and even leading the development of, commodity devices both the general population and science could benefit.

• So then, how to better integrate new, perhaps revolutionary technology in particular, to the scientific workflow? 
• On top of that, how can scientific study influence commodity devices such that the devices are primed to work as citizen science or teaching and learning devices once development is mature?
• Finally, how can commodity devices, both cheaper and readily available in support and quantity, both accelerate discovery and improve cost effectiveness in hard to reach regions such as the Arctic, Antarctic, Ocean, Space and others?
• What potential advancement in science methodology and workflow could result from newfound researcher awareness?

These questions led to a collaborative approach between myself and the National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs. The technology of focus for the experiment is a result of a potential data collection and validation method created from new disruptive devices and services.  For visualization and collection, I proposed a revolutionary device still in early stages of development be a centerpiece of the project: Google Glass. Additionally, Amazon Web Services would provide the computational power and scale necessary to address in-situ processing for data collection and retrieval. Finally, additional resources yet to be named would provide for additional sensor immersion and high-accuracy data collection in tandem with the Glass and AWS technologies.

With Polar Programs, we discussed many strategies, but ultimately settled on a somewhat hybrid approach to soliciting projects. The traditional aspect of our plan focused awareness efforts on well-know gatherings related to earth science domains we wished to target. the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference was unanimously determined a good fit for a "wide net" approach for soliciting interest in pilot projects. Once there was specific interest that could be tied to specific scientific discovery, the AGU opportunities will evolve into targeted projects delivering proof-of-concept examples. Finally, the proof-of-concept projects are to provide a basis for extrapolation of additional areas of scientific discovery to be pursued.