Tiny Sensors That Can Track Anything

[RedEarth]

They're small, smart and vigilant, the sort of miniature technology that science fiction writers once dreamed of. But the battery-powered, wireless sensors sometimes known as "smart dust" are here, and they're making their way into the electronic fabric of our lives.

In the last few years, smart dust sensors smaller than a deck of cards have been deployed in research projects to monitor the vibration of manufacturing equipment, keep tabs on colonies of seabirds and measure fine variations in vineyard climates that can make or break a wine.

Now they're being sold for real. Dust Networks Inc., a chief developer, said this week that defense contractor Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego would become one of its first customers, using the technology for perimeter security systems. A grocery chain in Minnesota installed the sensors in August to monitor energy use. A competitor, Sensicast Systems Inc., just announced its own arrangement to provide sensors to monitor the environment at a nuclear generating station.

Those deals resonate in an industry that didn't exist until a few years ago. Industry analysts predict that micro-sensors -- which communicate via radio-linked networks like computers on the Internet -- will become as ubiquitous in their own way as personal computers on the World Wide Web.

To be sure, sensors have been around for decades, particularly in the manufacturing world. But they've been costly, relatively large and limited by the wires that connected them to centralized monitors. As a consequence, they were generally used by companies with deep pockets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A45915-2004Sep23?language=printer

[NJCher]

1. hmmmm

I think I could keep track of my cat with these.


Cher

[ret5hd]

2. Science Applications International Corp

otherwise known as SAIC

a company w/ close CIA ties

the company that gave the okee-dokee to BBV

NOT a company to be trusted

[LisaLynne]

3. Ah, that nanotechnology.

Making my science fiction stories a reality.

[markus]

4. The are much smaller than a deck of cards

There is major research going on up here in N.D. at NDSU, and Alien Technologies is planning to build a fab for them up here.

RFID is going to be everywhere. It's still pretty flaky in terms of setting up the transcievers and trigger reading them, but before you know it, you're boss will not only know if you're hiding in the bathroom, she might know which stall you're in.

Hell, if these get adopted by booksellers and libraries as well as on IDs, someone could tell as you walked down the street what book you're reading. Go noodle on that lovely idea for a while.