Mote - Definition and Overview

Smartdust is a network of tiny wireless microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS), robots, or devices, installed with wireless communications, that can detect anything from light and temperature, to vibrations, etc.

The devices are also called motes and are intended to shrink down to the size of a grain of sand, or even a dust particle. Each device contain sensors, computing circuits, bidirectional wireless communications technology and a power supply. Motes would gather data, run computations and communicate using two-way band radio with other motes at distances approaching 1,000 feet (300 metres).

When clustered together, they automatically create highly flexible, low-power networks with applications ranging from climate control systems to entertainment devices that interact with information appliances.

Applications

A typical application scenario is scattering a hundred of these sensors around a building or around a hospital to monitor temperature or humidity or inform of disasters, such as earthquakes. In the military , they can perfom as a remote sensor chip to track enemy movements, detect poisonous gas or radioactivity. In a hospital, they can be used to track patient movements.

See also

• Nanotechnology
• TinyOS

External link

• How stuff works: motes (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/mote1.htm)
• UC Berkeley Smart Dust Project (http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/archive/users/warneke-brett/SmartDust/index.html)