Researchers Create Wireless Sensor Chip the Size of Glitter
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have successfully tested a wireless sensor chip so small that if someone were to sneeze, it just might blow away. The new "smart dust" chip integrates sensors and transmitters onto a platform that measures a mere 5 square millimeters, or slightly bigger than a fleck of glitter.
The chip will be the brains behind the new generation mote, dubbed "Spec" by its creators. It's a significant milestone in the Smart Dust and TinyOS projects, which are part of UC Berkeley's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS). The projects seek to create low-powered, low-cost wireless sensor devices, or motes, roughly the size of a grain of sand.