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Smartdust

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Smartdust is a hypothetical system of many tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) such as sensors, robots, or other devices, that can detect, for example, light, temperature, vibration, magnetism or chemicals; are usually networked wirelessly; and are distributed over some area to perform tasks, usually sensing.

Design and engineering

Smart Dust was a research proposal [1] to DARPA written by Kris Pister, Joe Kahn, and Bernhard Boser, all from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997. The proposal, to build wireless sensor nodes with a volume of one cubic millimeter, was selected for funding in 1998. The project led to a working mote smaller than a grain of rice [2] , and larger "COTS Dust" devices kicked off the TinyOS effort at Berkeley. The concepts for Smart Dust emerged out of a workshop at RAND in 1992 and a series of DARPA ISAT studies in the mid-1990s. The work was strongly influenced by work at UCLA and the University of Michigan during that period, as well as science fiction authors Neil Stephenson and Vernor Vinge. The first public presentation of the concept by that name was at the American Vacuum Society meeting in Anaheim in 1996.

The smartdust concept was introduced, developed, and funded by DARPA due to the potential military applications of the technology.[3] The concept was later expanded upon by Kristofer S. J. Pister in 2001.[4] A recent review discusses various techniques to take smartdust in sensor networks beyond millimeter dimensions to the micrometre level.[citation needed]

The Ultra-Fast Systems component of the Nanoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Glasgow is a founding member of a large international consortium which is developing a related concept: smart specks.[5]

See also

References