Al Molnar recently devised a transceiver-on-a-chip that’s 50x smaller than a cell phone, consumes 1000x less power, yet operates at the same frequency. Outfitted with their own TinyOS operating system, the motes self-organize into ad hoc wireless networks and pass their data from one to another bucket-brigade style until the information reaches a central computer for processing. In March, members of the Smart Dust research team, including graduate students Jason Hill, Ben Cook, Mike Scott, and Brett Warneke, took a major leap forward in their quest to combine ultra-low power computation, communication, and sensing into a single tiny device. Hill successfully tested his design for a new single-chip “spec” mote that’s only 5 millimeters square and includes a transmitter built by Molnar.

related notions: swarm intelligence, emergence, transparency, future shock levels

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