Examining the Role of Metadata in Testing IED Detection Systems

摘要

A sensor provides capabilities to extract unique spatial and temporal instances of a measurement specific to a system under test. The measurement is only useful when the interrogation agent fully knows the measurement's context. After a measurement event, if insufficient descriptive, contextual information is available, the measurement is lost for use in ascertaining future value. This article defines generic concepts for metadata and sensors such that their design, selection, application, and use are fully described for users, allowing for seamless present or future uses. Within this context, we examine a definition of metadata, metadata types, metadata uses, concepts for sensor ontology, and multilevel sensor metadata. Metadata's role in detecting events; acquiring measurements; converting measurements to information, information fusion, and aggregation into complex structures; developing actionable knowledge and persistent storage; and retrieving derived knowledge are addressed through presentation of an illustrative example application, that of improvised explosive device detection system testing.