smart dust

n.

Tiny airborne devices containing sensors and communications capabilities.

Example Citation:

Dr. Kris Pister, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, is among the scientists who aim to give microbatteries a trial run with a wireless network based on MEMS technology. Dr. Pister is the inventor of smart dust, or networked airborne motes of silicon that are designed to sense, measure and transmit data like temperature, humidity and light intensity.

— Anne Eisenberg, "A World of Wee Devices Seeks Some Batteries to Match," The New York Times, January 10, 2002

Earliest Citation:

The Pentagon has a proposal for fighting dirty in the future: clouds of "smart dust" that could track enemy troops or check for dangerous chemicals. The tiny particles, about 1 millimeter wide by 1 centimeter long, could be shot into the air in a bullet and fall slowly in a cloudlike mass, according to Defense News, a weekly newspaper.

— Jennifer Files, "Tech Bits," The Dallas Morning News, May 26, 1997

Notes:

Individually, and appropriately, these devices are called motes.

Related Words:

decimal dust

electronic nose

e-textile

microflyer

nose on a chip

smart drug

smartifact

smartphone

spime

Category:

Gadgets and Appliances

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