Smart Dust: The Sensors That Track Every Thing, Everywhere
The idea of the Internet of Things is so passé. The general concept of the Internet of Things is that we can put a sensor on anything and have it send data back to a database through the Internet. In this way, we can monitor everything, everywhere and build smarter systems that are more interactive than ever before.
Putting sensors on stuff? Boring. What if the sensors were in the air, everywhere? They could monitor everything — temperature, humidity, chemical signatures, movement, brainwaves — everything.
The technology is called Smart Dust and it’s not quite as crazy (or as new) as you might think.
Smart Dust as a concept originated out of a research project by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Research And Development Corporation (RAND) in the early 1990s. We use the military anecdote above because it was these military research groups that first conceptualized Smart Dust but the practical application of the technology can be applied to almost any industry. Dust in the fields monitoring the crops. Dust in the factories monitoring the output of machines. Dust in your body monitoring your entire state of well being. Dust in the forests tracking animal migration patterns, wind, and humidity.
The entire world could be quantified with this type of ubiquitous sensor technology. But how does it really work?
Definition
Smart Dust devices are small wireless microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS) that can detect everything from light to vibrations. It is a tiny dust size device with extraordinary capabilities. It encompasses a nanostructured silicon sensor that can spontaneously assemble, orient sense and report on their local environment. This new technology combines sensing, computing, wireless communication capabilities, and autonomous power supply within the volume of only a few millimeters. It is very hard to detect the presence of the Smart Dust and it is even harder to get rid of them once deployed. Smart Dust is useful in monitoring real-world phenomena without disturbing the original process.
