Distributed sensor networks with collective computation

Simulations of a network of N sensors have been performed. The simulation space contains a number of sound sources and a large number of sensors. Each sensor is equipped with an omni-directional microphone and is capable of measuring only the time of arrival of a signal. Sensors are able to wirelessly transmit and receive packets of information, and have some computing power. The sensors were programmed to merge all information (received packets as well as local measurements) into a 'world view' for that node. This world view is then transmitted. In this way, information can slowly diffuse across the network. One node was monitored in the network as a proxy for when information had diffused across the network. Simulations demonstrated that the energy expended per sensor per time step was approximately independent of N