International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 50– No.23, July 2012 12 Environment Sensing and Energy Efficient Smart Sensor Switching Dipanjan Bhattacharjee Electronice & Communication Sikkim Manipal institute of Technology Sikkim manipal University, India Gangotri Chakraborty Information technology Sikkim Manipal institute of Technology, Sikkim manipal University, India Sushabhan Choudhury School of Technology, North eastern Hill UniversityMawaynroh, umshing,Shillong, India ABSTRACT In this paper we present novel methods of energy efficient environment sensing in a very cost effective manner by a method called smart sensor switching. We have extracted the requirements of sensor switching and implemented various intelligent energy efficient protocols like dynamic sensor switching, sensor handover in the hardware platform which makes the sensing mechanism uninterrupted and highly energy efficient. The prototype hardware consists of five different gas sensors which are operated by centralized peripheral interface controller (PIC) based embedded system platform. The paper also describes a practical sensor switching mechanism with real time data, various dynamic and non dynamic sensor parameters have been considered in the designing scenario. Keywords Smart sensor switching, dynamic sensor switching, sensor handover, gas sensor, peripheral interface controller (PIC). 1. INTRODUCTION The importance of wireless sensor network is increasing day by day throughout the world due to modern sensor and embedded system technologies. Around the world would like to be sensed seamlessly anytime anywhere through the best sensor. Sensor node consists of large variety of heterogeneous sensors. The users would like to utilize heterogeneous sensor in a single platform without compromising the development cost and life time of the node. Many gas detecting systems have been developed which can detect different levels of gas concentrations effectively [1] [2]. In this paper we report the design and development of a reliable auto configurable smart wireless gas sensing system optimized for industrial application where system smartness and uninterrupted sensing are main concern. This is a typical gas sensing system with some additional features in contrast to other gas detection systems. The system provides highly secured and reliable data transmission over the network. It also detects presence of human at the site of leakage for timely rescue and will alert the appropriate security authority, temperature information sensed by temperature sensor which provides the danger level though gas ignition hardly depends on the environmental temperature and pressure [3], it able to build gas concentration profile of the environment. If any abnormality take place the system will trigger an alarm situated; in such case a text message can be send to any where in the globe using a global system of mobile communication (GSM) modulator and demodulator (MODEM).[4] Presents the development of smart sensor network for hazardous gas monitoring by using three types of gas sensors. Some gas detection systems have also been designed and developed. [5] Presented implementation of self diagnostic power management protocols smart sensor triggering, sensor handover and auto error detection and correction which enhances the lifetime of the node. A number of research works have been published in last few years in the domain of integrated gas sensors and node. A node with multimode sensors is used for sensing different environmental parameters light, temperature, humidity and different types of gases along with error detection and correction capability [6]. Few studies have been found dealing with practical development of sensor consisting of multiple sensors with various power management protocols. These papers present design of a wireless sensor network which is able to collect the information from sensors, process it and communicate wirelessly in the network for industrial monitoring, agriculture, composting processes etc. [7,8] . In last year presented design and development of a flexible smart gas detection system describes various flexible protocols by which node hardware and sensors can be configured remotely [9]. The previous studies are mainly focused on the hardware development and flexibility issues but did not focus on the sensing efficiency and sensor switching or handover issue more, our work mainly focus on the uninterrupted sensing through the best sensor in a very energy efficient way. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the need for sensor switching and its associated challenges. In section 3 we look into functionality of smart sensor switching and also discussed the need for dynamic switching time estimation. Section 4 we have explained the hardware prototype description and various designing aspects. This section also describes about the experimental setup. In