Sensors 2013, 13, 17292-17321; doi:10.3390/s131217292 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors Review Mobile Sensing Systems Elsa Macias 1,*, Alvaro Suarez 1 and Jaime Lloret 2 1 Grupo de Arquitectura y Concurrencia (GAC), Departamento de Ingeniería Telemática, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Campus Universitario de Tafira, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Gran Canaria) 35017, Spain; E-Mail:
[email protected] 2 Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, C/Paranimf, n° 1, Grao de Gandia 46730, Spain; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mails:
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[email protected]. Received: 5 November 2013; in revised form: 2 December 2013 / Accepted: 13 December 2013 / Published: 16 December 2013 Abstract: Rich-sensor smart phones have made possible the recent birth of the mobile sensing research area as part of ubiquitous sensing which integrates other areas such as wireless sensor networks and web sensing. There are several types of mobile sensing: individual, participatory, opportunistic, crowd, social, etc. The object of sensing can be people-centered or environment-centered. The sensing domain can be home, urban, vehicular… Currently there are barriers that limit the social acceptance of mobile sensing systems. Examples of social barriers are privacy concerns, restrictive laws in some countries and the absence of economic incentives that might encourage people to participate in a sensing campaign. Several technical barriers are phone energy savings and the variety of sensors and software for their management. Some existing surveys partially tackle the topic of mobile sensing systems.