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Spray-On Computers

Posted by timothy on from the topical-ointment dept.

Jack William Bell writes "Edinburgh University has funding for a program to create spray on computers. The basic idea is to make thousands of tiny 'silicon specks' or 'smart sand' (a step larger than smart dust) which work together via wireless networking to provide 'ubiquitous computing.' No, the idea itself isn't new. But it is interesting to see someone actually working on it. The initial application is a spray you apply to the chest of heart patients, creating a sensor array to report their health back to the hospital."

2 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. do they care about security? by ReallyQuietGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    do these devices have enough compute horsepower to handle encryption? do you really want your heart status to be "broadcast out"? can they autonegotiate proper encryption for correct data exchange? all these smart dust, smart pebbles, etc. plans (especially those intended for military purposes) - it looks like major security needs to be built in, but at least so far the track record has been pretty bad (WEP).

  2. bone's medicalkit by nounderscores · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm sure a lot of the grant money is for working out how to encapsulate the sillicon chips with teflon or titanium (or other stuff like exotic carbon) in strategic arrangements so that their outsides are biocompatible and conductive in just the right places, so that one day Bones can wave some strange glowey thing over you, say "Well, i'm just a simple country doctor," and bring you back from the dead.

    On the other hand poisonous smart sand would make a fantastic weapon. Make it be able to hop or crawl by giving it little piezoelectric actuators and you could make an ordinary looking patch of sand suddenly come to life when activated by an enemy soldier's touch, swarming over his body and forcing itself under his gas mask seals and into his eyes, nose, ears and mouth. And then it could hide out in the body, waiting for the next victim.

    lastly, a listening device the size of a grain of sand could be put into your bedroom and you'd never find it. (hands up who regularly even vaccuumes their room? I always forget. I don't even know how to spell the verb properly.) They say that the goal is to computerise objects by simply spraying smart sand onto it: What if somebody decided to (without your knowledge) computerise your pillow stuffing? Do you know how many Americans pray out their deepest darkest secrets on their knees by their bedsides each night?

    If these walls could talk...