The Change Mariner

"Smart Dust:" The Next Big Thing?

Mercury News:

Imagine swarms of tiny sensors sitting in your office, seeing, listening and maybe even smelling everything that goes on around you.

Such "smart dust'' sensors are under development by start-ups like Dust of Berkeley, to be used in everything from heightening security in offices to observing enemy troop movements. Dust plans to announce today that the CIA's venture branch, In-Q-Tel, and two other investors have invested $7 million to help it in its quest.

Dust is one of the leading makers of "smart dust,'' or miniature sensors that measure heat and vibration, analyze chemical compounds and observe surrounding movement. "Smart dust'' is a niche in the hot "radio frequency identification'' industry, where a slew of companies are racing to develop versions of a technology that uses wireless sensing to track movements and products.

Dust, which employs 27 people, is battling stiff competition from an emerging group of start-ups focused on the smart-dust market.

With smart dust, sensors are packed in a tiny box together with a small chip, a battery and a radio -- and use these components to pass along data to other boxes that lie nearby in a so-called "mesh network.''

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