Making environmental data visible for people

The project team has been working on an ambitious goal since mid-2020: To connect the physical environment and abstract data visualisation - or to put it more simply: to make invisible environmental data visible to people.

The particular focus was on mobile, situationally embedded data visualisation methods that are specifically designed for use in rural areas - i.e. where digital infrastructures are often only available to a limited extent.

Interdisciplinary cooperation in Lower Austria

The project is headed by Dr Wolfgang Aigner from the St. Pölten UAS. Since mid-2020, researchers have been working together across universities and institutes with strong roots in the Lower Austrian research landscape:

• FOTEC Forschungs- und Technologietransfer GmbH, the research company of the UAS WIener Neustadt, and the University for Continuing Education Krems are responsible for sensor technology and data infrastructure,
• the St. Pölten UAS contributes expertise in visualisation and IT security and
• the IMC UAS Krems focuses on business value creation and business process transformation.

Particularly worth emphasising: The scientific and technical results were designed to be application-independent - meaning they can be flexibly adapted for a wide range of applications.

The project is funded by the Research, Technology and Innovation Programme (RTI) of the state of Lower Austria.

Application-independent results

An illustrative example is the data management system developed, which is based on a modular concept. It uses a structure that differentiates between various levels such as gateways, IoT devices, measured value definitions and measured value results. This structure serves as a conceptual model for organising and managing the measurement data.

For example, devices can communicate via TCP or LoRa, but devices from openSenseMap can also be easily integrated. The information collected is processed together regardless of its source, eliminating the need to maintain separate data silos for each technology.

A special focus was also placed on expandability. The modular structure makes it possible to integrate new communication technologies with little effort. This makes the solution particularly adaptable to future requirements and technological developments.