| Body | What may seem like science-fiction is actually science-fact. Unsurprisingly funded by a United States Defence Research Agency, a nanotechnology going by the funky name of 'Smart Dust' claims that when spread across a large area it can gather information, effectively communicate to build vast networks to record and transmit information back to their controllers.
The devices called 'motes' are about the size of a grain of rice and use inbuilt sensors to collect information about their surroundings. Complex automatic configuration abilities allow the devices to quickly build robust networks after deployment. Current mote technology supports battery life of up to 5 years, but new projects are making breakthroughs on motes that can scavenge energy from ground vibrations and use solar power cells.
The motes are currently running the open source operating system TinyOS nicknamed 'weenix' currently hosted on http://www.sourceforge.net which runs on just a few kilobytes of on-board RAM. The operating system has been developed from the ground up for maximum efficiency supports a C like programming language called nesC.
So what's the next killer 'Smart Dust' app! Well again, not surprisingly as the research for the project has been funded by the military, battlefield application has been its primary focus.
Motes can be distributed across a battle zone by air. They then lie in wait primed for their data collection duties. There life cycle involves them being dormant for 95% of the time, only coming to life to collect data, receive instruction and transmit results. In the battlefield they are being trialled to monitor troop and vehicle activity by tracking ground movement. There ability to perform data collection discretely means the use of expensive drones and manned airships traditionally used for surveillance can be greatly reduced.
Apparently they tell us there are some non-military uses motes can be put to, such as post-earthquake situations where detection of vibrations could save lives. Similarly scattering some smart dust over areas of the world of ecological interest such as the diminishing rainforests or melting icecaps could provide vital data collection opportunities.
A more useful osix use of the technology could be scattering smart dust round a nightclub to single out areas of interesting female activity, or perhaps scattering over the British countryside to look for hidden treasure! Or have you got a better use for them!?
Kits are already available for home construction of motes including law breaking radio interface capabilities from a few places like xbow.com and willow.co.uk. So what are you waiting for? Get Dusting!
by barnesyboy on 2004-03-03 21:27:31
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