sensor development

(From an article I posted on my website)

Intel, the global microprocessor giant, is driving research in a direction which, at first glance, looks like it has nothing to do with its core business. Through a lab funded by the company at Berkeley, Intel is concentrating on developing sensor networks, where motes (small, low-cost, low-power computers) monitor and relay data across a self-sustaining network. At least, that’s the idea. They’re pinning their hopes on this field, because they (and other companies) see this technology as not only different, but transformative. The motes run an ultra stripped-down operating system, TinyOS, which enables them to be programmed to ‘intelligently’ collect and relay information. The short-term solution is not to create ultra-small or ultra-cheap motes, however, the end goal sees scientists hoping for the development of smart dust: speck-sized wireless sensors which are intelligent enough to organize themselves into autonomous networks; the basic result being tiny, self-configuring, networked hardware that is everywhere.

LINKS:
How motes work
Intel's Exploratory Research: Deep Networking
Habitat Monitoring on Great Duck Island
Intel's Tiny Hope for the Future
US to put Intel motes on Mars