A pragmatic value-of-information approach for intruder tracking sensor networks

Sensor networks are distributed systems where nodes embedded in the environment collect readings through their sensors and transmit data to customers. The overall goal of these systems can be stated as maximizing a metric of the sensing quality while limiting the consumption of a set of scarce resources. In this paper we consider an intruder detection and tracking system where the sensing quality is a metric of the pragmatic value of the information provided by the network. This metric depends not only on the quantity and accuracy of information, but also on when and how the customers will use this information. We design a system which adapts its information transmission to the disruptive decisions made by the user, including a consideration for the cost of incorrect decisions.