Fusing human sensor and physical sensor data

Past experiences tell us that a disaster warning and response system can improve its coverage of the threatened area and situation awareness by supplementing in-situ and remote sensor data with human sensor data captured and sent by people in the area. This paper is concerned with data fusion and processing methods with which the system can make use of human sensor data and physical sensor data synergistically to speed up its decision process or improve the quality of its decision. We formulate the problem in a statistical detection and estimation framework. Within this framework, value and decision fusion of human sensor and physical sensor data of arbitrary numerical values can be treated in a coherent way.