Xiaofan (Fred) Jiang

Please visit my research group’s website at Columbia University for recent projects

PAM: Pervasive Air-Quaity Monitoring
We approach the challenging problem of accurate and affordable PM2.5 monitoring from a novel cloud-based data analytics perspective. By carefully designing and building our own PM2.5 monitors, we are able to obtain reasonably accurate PM2.5 measurement in real-time and at low cost. And by aggregating their data, plus other types of data at the cloud, we are able to learn and create model for particulate matter, which in turn helps us calibrate sensors, and infer PM2.5 concentrations.

 

 

QiLoc: A Qi-Wireless Based Platform for Robust User-Initiated Indoor Location Services
QiLoc is a simple yet effective way to accurately locate and identify occupants inside buildings. By utilizing the Qi wireless charging protocol, a QiLoc-enabled desk is able to identify a mobile phone placed on it and therefore locate the user. The cloud-side QiLoc server maintains location information of occupants, and provides a set of APIs via standard web services, such as location, ad-hoc group membership, and authentication. We demonstrate a number of smart-building applications, such as an Android app to locate others in the same room, a Windows widget to popup notifications on colleagues’ entry/exit events, and a proof-of-concepts integrating precise and live location information with calendar, instant messaging, and email systems.

 

 

 

 

VeriCloud: Cloud-based Smartphone Geniune Verfications
VeriCloud is an IoT approach to tackling the counterfeit smartphone problem. An Android app is develop to generate unique “fingerprints” for Android smartphones, taking in account of both hardware specs and software information; the Android app also performs benchmarks that complete within 30 seconds. These data are used in combination with an online “signature database” to identify whether a smartphone is counterfeit of genuine. Several techniques to used to grow the database with crowd-source data while maintaining “signature” integrity.

 

 

 

 

LiveSynergy: Bridging the Gap between Virtual and Physical Worlds
LiveSynergy is a novel magnetic-based wireless proximity detection platform, with accuracy and consistency better than existing solutions such as BLE, WiFi, ZigBee, and long-range RFID. Building on top of this platform, we provide cloud-based APIs that enable real-time and rich interactions between humans and their physical environment. LiveSynergy enables a range of indoor applications such as location-based targeted advertising and presence detection.

News and media: [video]
Publications: IPSN ’12, MobileSense ’12, SenSys ’11

 

 

 

 

SEPTIMU / MusicalHeart / LifeX
In this project, we build software and hardware solutions that utilize and/or augment mobile phones to continuously monitor users’ wellness without changing their existing lifestyle. Our system consists of HW/SW, apps, Cloud and social networks and features a closed-loop design with both sensing and actuating capabilities. In particular, instead of solely passive monitoring, we further explore the actuation possibilities, i.e., seek to leverage the social networks to properly motivate the user towards improved health conditions.

News and media: The Economist, New Scientist, CNET,  Gizmodo
Publications: IPSN ’12, SenSys ’12, HotMobile ’13, MobiSys ’13

 

 

PhoneWeb: The Other Social Network
The PhoneWeb project seeks to enable – through the use of new technologies such as Low-Energy Bluetooth, GPS, Low-Power Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi direct, and etc – handheld devices to continuously and accurately discover all the people around it and to create and maintain a local neighborhood map. We also seek to implement new types of local/social applications based on the PhoneWeb infrastructure.

News and media: [video]

 

 

 

 

Green Building / ACme / sMAP
ACme is an open source hardware and software platform that enables wireless energy/power measurement and control of AC devices. The ACme node fills the gap between inexpensive LCD watt-meters (e.g. Kill-A-Watt) and expensive networked enterprise energy monitors. The ACme network (pictured on the right) is an IPv6 based mesh network that enables direct IP communication with individual ACme nodes.

News and media: GigaOM, CITRIS, LBNL, Moteware
Publications: SenSys ’09, SenSys ’10, BuildSys ’10, IPSN ’10, FIIW ’11

 

 

 

 

 

 

LoCal: Architecture for Localized Electrical Energy Reduction, Generation and Sharing
The LoCal Energy Network is a cyber overlay on the energy distribution system in its various physical manifestations, e.g., machine rooms, buildings, neighborhoods, isolated generation islands and regional grids. Pervasive information exchange will enable a more efficient scalable energy system with improved resilience and quality of delivered power. LoCal brings together (1) pervasive information about energy availability and use, (2) interactive load/supply negotiation protocols, (3) controllable loads and sources, and, (4) logically packetized energy, buffered and forwarded over a physical energy network.
Publications: HotEmNets ’10, Energy2030, etc

 

 

Publications: IPSN ’07

 

 

 

 

Prometheus: Perpetual Environmentally Powered Sensor Networks 
Prometheus is a multi-stage solar powered system architecture that utilizes sensor node’s microprocessor to intelligently and efficiently manage energy transfers between multiple storage elements, resulting in near perpetual operation. Prometheus is implemented in the Berkeley Trio motes.

Publications: IPSN ’05

 

 

 

Ultrasound Ranging / Distributed Localization
Ultrasonic Ranging is a Mica2/Mica2Dot device designed for range estimation. It is used by the Calamari project lead by Kamin Whitehouse for distributed localization as part of the DARPA-funded Network Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) project.

Publications: IPSN ’04, EmNetS-II