This article was taken from the February 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
How do you build a live, real-time map of a city about to flood?
With cheap, open-source sensors, says Ben Ward, founder of Oxford-based startup Love Hz. "I wanted to create a guerrilla sensor network," he says. "Collecting citizen-science data, but without necessarily getting permission first." Ward's sensors are standard ultrasound rangefinders, placed in people's basements or near bridges to detect rising water levels. But the data is transmitted through a new channel: TV white space. "TV white space transmits in the gaps left between the different television channels," he explains. His project is part of a series of trials being run by broadcast regulator Ofcom, opening up these unused parts of the TV spectrum to individuals such as Ward to test whether it can become a communications channel for internet-of-things devices.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
