What 'Smart Dust' Could Do for You

By ZILLAH BAHAR, THESTANDARD.COM

June 28, 2001

What 'Smart Dust' Could Do for You

By ZILLAH BAHAR, THESTANDARD.COM

In the high-tech industry, less has always been valued as more. That is, the
smaller the computational device, the better. And nowhere is the emphasis on
miniaturization better illustrated than in the lab of Kris Pister, an
associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of
California at Berkeley.

He's busy shrinking sensors - tiny, bottle-cap-shaped micro-machines fitted
with wireless communication devices - that measure light and temperature.
When clustered together, they automatically create highly flexible,
low-power networks with applications ranging from climate-control systems to
entertainment devices that interact with handheld computers.

Pister has dubbed his team's development efforts the "Smart Dust" project.
But don't worry - the sensors won't be airborne, so you're not likely to
inhale one by accident or have to wipe them from the coffee table. Despite
the fanciful moniker, we're actually talking about devices that ultimately
will be the size of a few grains of sand. At this point, Pister and his
graduate students have designed a functioning "macro" sensor with a volume
of 100 cubic millimeters, and aim to puzzle out a more advanced device
measuring 1 cubic centimeter by August. Meanwhile, San Jose, Calif.-based
sensor developer Crossbow Technologies plans to begin manufacturing the
product by the end of next year. (Pister says all the work his team does is
in the public domain; major funding comes from the U.S. Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency.)

The miniaturization effort could help solve one of the most pressing
economic problems of the day: runaway energy costs. Once attached to a
building's walls, the sensors would form a network relaying data about each
room's temperature, light and humidity to a central computer that would
regulate energy usage for a fraction of the cost of current climate-control
systems.

The emerging smart-energy technology potentially could save the state of
California on electricity costs to the tune of $7 to $8 billion a year, as
buildings drain away more than a third of the total energy supply, Pister
says. What's more, it would be easy to install and maintain. "You don't have
to connect anything," says Crossbow CEO Mike Horton. "The sensors are also
very low-power. That allows you to go for three to five years of battery
life. "

Engineers also envision other uses for the Smart Dust project, including:

- Monitoring humidity and temperature to assess the freshness of foods
stored in the refrigerator or cupboard.

- Monitoring quadriplegics' eye movements and facial gestures and to assist
them in operating a wheelchair or using computational devices.

- Communicating with a handheld computer for games and other forms of
entertainment. A user could attach the sensors to his or her fingers to
"sculpt" 3D shapes in virtual clay visible on the device's screen. The same
idea could be applied to playing the piano or communicating in sign
language, with the handheld computer translating hand gestures into music
and speech.

- Detecting the onset of diseases, such as cancer. Experiments on humans are
expected to begin as soon as one year from now, with adoption taking place
anywhere from three to 10 years, according to Smart Dust researchers.

The caveat to emerging sensor technology, of course, is that because it
detects subtle environmental changes, it could pose a serious threat to
people's privacy. When one of Pister's graduate students installed a cluster
of the larger sensors at his home, he observed the network detecting not
just when the heater went on, but also when someone got up in the morning,
as well as the duration of the shower. Pretty intimate stuff, to be sure.

"Like it or not, this is the future," Pister cautions. And that is precisely
why the Smart Dust team sought advice from U.C. Berkeley legal experts as it
proceeded with research.

Pamela Samuelson, director of the Berkeley Center for Law Technology, says
her role in the project is to point out how the sensor data could be misused
by employers or law enforcement agencies and, in turn, spur Smart Dust
scientists to build privacy protections into the technology's design. "What
you do inside your home is no one else's business," says Samuelson.
"Technology shouldn't change those expectations of privacy."

http://www.nytimes.com/thestandard/standard_27573.html?ex=994860464&ei=1&en=d96889073072b653

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