Friday, March 26, 2010

Smart Dust: Endless Applications


The broad range of applications and the low cost of Smart Dust means that many types of currently used technologies and systems will be replaced by it. Because there are so many ways to use smart dust, we can narrow our focus to one field of application: environmental monitoring[3].

Again, because billions and billions of motes will be able to be manufactured, it will be theoretically possible to distribute them globally to create a sort of "central nervous system of the Earth"[4]. This system would be able to provide massive amounts of accurate and vital information on anything from impending earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes, to temperature readings, humidity, crop growth and pollution control[4].

By environmental monitoring, we could also include their ability to help monitor our energy consumption. When installed in offices or large buildings that have many unwatched areas, Smart Dust can be used to: shut off unused lights and air conditioning, make real-time thermostat adjustments to rooms and basically turn off any power consuming device that would otherwise waste energy[4].

Much of the technology that exists today for the purposes listed above is much too costly and large to be used as pervasively as Smart Dust. The sheer number of motes that can be used will allow users to obtain much a much higher quality of data that can be provided by current monitoring technology. Smart Dust will be a cheap way to provide massive amounts of data accurately and seamlessly[4].


References:


[4]http://www.northjersey.com/columnists/84759412__Smart_dust__aims_to_revolutionize_lives.html

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