'Smart dust' aims to monitor everything

[Jeff]

By John D. Sutter, CNN
May 3, 2010 8:27 a.m. EDT

Palo Alto, California (CNN) -- In the 1990s, a researcher named Kris Pister dreamed up a wild future in which people would sprinkle the Earth with countless tiny sensors, no larger than grains of rice.

These "smart dust" particles, as he called them, would monitor everything, acting like electronic nerve endings for the planet. Fitted with computing power, sensing equipment, wireless radios and long battery life, the smart dust would make observations and relay mountains of real-time data about people, cities and the natural environment.

Now, a version of Pister's smart dust fantasy is starting to become reality.

"It's exciting. It's been a long time coming," said Pister, a computing professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

"I coined the phrase 14 years ago. So smart dust has taken a while, but it's finally here."

Maybe not exactly how he envisioned it. But there has been progress.

The latest news comes from the computer and printing company Hewlett-Packard, which recently announced it's working on a project it calls the "Central Nervous System for the Earth." In coming years, the company plans to deploy a trillion sensors all over the planet.

The wireless devices would check to see if ecosystems are healthy, detect earthquakes more rapidly, predict traffic patterns and monitor energy use. The idea is that accidents could be prevented and energy could be saved if people knew more about the world in real time, instead of when workers check on these issues only occasionally.

HP will take its first step toward this goal in about two years, said Pete Hartwell, a senior researcher at HP Labs in Palo Alto. The company has made plans with Royal Dutch Shell to install 1 million matchbook-size monitors to aid in oil exploration by measuring rock vibrations and movement, he said. Those sensors, which already have been developed, will cover a 6-square-mile area.

That will be the largest smart dust deployment to date, he said.

"We just think now, the technology has reached a point where it makes basic sense for us ... to get this out of the lab and into reality," Hartwell said.

...


Even though the first application of HP's "Central Nervous System for the Earth" project will be commercial, Hartwell says the motives behind smart dust are altruistic.

...

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/05/03/smar ... index.html

[chiggerbit]

Even though the first application of HP's "Central Nervous System for the Earth" project will be commercial, Hartwell says the motives behind smart dust are altruistic.

"People ask me what my job is, and I say, well, I'm going to save the world," he said.

Is this supposed to be satire? Really, it's getting hard to tell what's intended to be satirical in today's weird, freaky world. I mean, this guy can't possibly be serious about this being "altruistic", can he?


From the link in the article:

SMART DUST
Autonomous sensing and communication in a cubic millimeter

PI: Kris Pister
Co-investigators: Joe Kahn, Bernhard Boser
Subcontract: Steve Morris, MLB Co.

Supported by the DARPA/MTO MEMS program

From wiki on DARPA:
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military.

[stefano]

Mmm... to me it looks more like a vintage example of a science correspondent not quite knowing his subject and under pressure to write something exciting, and so sensationalising an already hyperbolic corporate press release. These things sound quite a bit less impressive than RFID chips.

HP will take its first step toward this goal in about two years, said Pete Hartwell, a senior researcher at HP Labs in Palo Alto. The company has made plans with Royal Dutch Shell to install 1 million matchbook-size monitors to aid in oil exploration by measuring rock vibrations and movement, he said. Those sensors, which already have been developed, will cover a 6-square-mile area.

That doesn't sound very small to me. Definitely not small enough for 'dust' to be an accurate word to use.

[brekin]

In the 1990s, a researcher named Kris Pister dreamed up a wild future in which people would sprinkle the Earth with countless tiny sensors, no larger than grains of rice.

These "smart dust" particles, as he called them, would monitor everything, acting like electronic nerve endings for the planet. Fitted with computing power, sensing equipment, wireless radios and long battery life, the smart dust would make observations and relay mountains of real-time data about people, cities and the natural environment.

Now, a version of Pister's smart dust fantasy is starting to become reality.

I think its only fair since so much of the technology marvels that are coming so fast today are based on individual and collective fantasies or wish fulfillment that we start to examine what these fantasies are. This guy claims that he was motivated out of altruism and I don't doubt he probably thinks that most of the time. But I wonder since so much sadism stems from the desire to dominate and control that his real unacknowledged desire to sprinkle the earth with smart dust doesn't come from a desire to dominate and control the data? And as so much of the data is people why would he want to measure and track something if he didn't want to ultimately control it? And since control is based on the users needs and not the used, how long before he or the beneficiaries of his technology start to satisfy their desires through "the data"?

[stefano]

Control is definitely the objective of any corporate interest in technology; they want to control how you earn and spend. I just don't think the technology in the OP is very impressive. In a context of the systems that are already in place that can track you constantly if you carry a cell phone, predict crowd behaviour under stress, and are able to build a computer model of the entire population of the US, matchbook-sized sensors from HP in two years' time aren't going to make a difference.

[brekin]

stefano wrote:

Control is definitely the objective of any corporate interest in technology; they want to control how you earn and spend. I just don't think the technology in the OP is very impressive. In a context of the systems that are already in place that can track you constantly if you carry a cell phone, predict crowd behaviour under stress, and are able to build a computer model of the entire population of the US, matchbook-sized sensors from HP in two years' time aren't going to make a difference.

I agree. But I think it goes deeper then corporations. As fears go if they just wanted to know how I spent my money I really wouldn't be concerned. The technology that is available now is so unbelievable I see the smart dust as the next leap in the internet where matter itself is brought on line. If the smart dust particle becomes smaller and is already able to sense and report then how hard would it be then to weaponize it? They act like these will just be billions of weather balloons, when they are going to be more like drones in a short amount of time.

[82_28]

Speaking of "modern times", this is definitely good for a laugh. Click through to see all the pics:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/if-mar ... e-in-2010/

[Penguin]

This was back in 2007 -
http://pinktentacle.com/2007/02/hitachi ... id-powder/
And that stuff really is dust.

" Hitachi was able to create RFID chips 64 times smaller than their currently available 0.4 x 0.4 mm mu-chips. Like mu-chips, which have been used as an anti-counterfeit measure in admission tickets, the new chips have a 128-bit ROM for storing a unique 38-digit ID number.

The new chips are also 9 times smaller than the prototype chips Hitachi unveiled last year, which measure 0.15 x 0.15 mm.

At 5 microns thick, the RFID chips can more easily be embedded in sheets of paper, meaning they can be used in paper currency, gift certificates and identification. But since existing tags are already small enough to embed in paper, it leads one to wonder what new applications the developers have in mind. "

Someone noted that these chips too need an antenna that is larger than the chip itself, but can be a thin strip embedded in paper, for example.

Of course, an RFID chip is a totally different beast from a chip with sensors and transmitting ability...
And DARPA is for warfare, nothing bloody altruistic about that.

[tazmic]

Smart dust researchers say their theory of monitoring the world — however it’s realized — will benefit people and the environment.

More information is better information, Pister said.

“Having more sensors improves the efficiency of a system and reduces the demand and reduces waste,” he said. “So all of that is just straight goodness.”

Hartwell, the HP researcher, says the only way people can combat huge problems like climate change and biodiversity loss is to have more information about what’s going on.

“Frankly, I think we have to do it, from a sustainability and environmental standpoint,” he said.

It's tempting to just ask 'Can anyone really be that moronically naive?', but I can't help thinking of Illich:

Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavor are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.

[Penguin]

Thats a good one, the Illich quote.

[stefano]

I see the smart dust as the next leap in the internet where matter itself is brought on line.

The phrase seems to have dropped out of public discourse a bit, but about two years ago "The Internet of Things" was supposed to be the next big thing. Definite gains in efficiency and logistics, but the fact that it would basically mean everyone's grocery purchases being tracked from farm to landfill was seldom discussed.

A near invisible network of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) is being deployed on almost every type of consumer item. These tiny, traceable chips, which can be scanned wirelessly, are being produced in their billions and are capable of being connected to the internet in an instant. This so-called ‘Ambient intelligence’ promises to create a global network of
physical objects every bit as pervasive and ubiquitous as the worldwide web itself.

From McKinsey in March 2010: In what’s called the Internet of Things, sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects—from roadways to pacemakers—are linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet. These networks churn out huge volumes of data that flow to computers for analysis. When objects can both sense the environment and communicate, they become tools for understanding complexity and responding to it swiftly. What’s revolutionary in all this is that these physical information systems are now beginning to be deployed, and some of them even work largely without human intervention.

If the smart dust particle becomes smaller and is already able to sense and report then how hard would it be then to weaponize it? They act like these will just be billions of weather balloons, when they are going to be more like drones in a short amount of time.

I don't know about that... except in some cases where they might implant tiny bombs inside people's bodies, sort of like constantly having a gun to their heads to coerce them, or have them drop dead when they've served their purpose. But the use of such tiny sensors I think is more useful to get a Panopticon effect; when the time comes for violence the spectacle of a massive explosion or a SWAT team dropped from a helicopter is more useful for intimidation purposes than someone jsut dropping dead.

And my thanks, too, tazmic, for the Ilich quote.

[Joao]

Literal Smart Dust Opens Brain-Computer Pathway to "Spy on Your Brain"
Nicholas West, Activist Post, 19 July 2013

Some might have heard about Smart Dust; nanoparticles that can be employed as sensor networks for a range of security and environmental applications. Now, however, literal Smart Dust for the brain is being proposed as the next step toward establishing a brain-computer interface.

The system is officially called "neural dust" and works to "monitor the brain from the inside." Inventors are attempting to overcome the hurdle of how to best implant sensors that can remain over the course of one's life. Researchers at Berkeley Engineering believe they have found a novel way to achieve this:

This paper explores the fundamental system design trade-offs and ultimate size, power, and bandwidth scaling limits of neural recording systems.

A network of tiny implantable sensors could function like an MRI inside the brain, recording data on nearby neurons and transmitting it back out. The smart dust particles would all contain an extremely small CMOS sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in nearby neurons. The researchers envision a piezoelectric material backing the CMOS capable of generating electrical signals from ultrasound waves. The process would also work in reverse, allowing the dust to beam data back via high-frequency sound waves. The neural dust would also be coated with polymer. (source)

The investment in neuroscience has received a $100 million dollar commitment via Obama's BRAIN project, while Europe has committed $1.3 billion to build a supercomputer replica of the brain in a similarly comprehensive and detailed fashion as the Human Genome Project mapped DNA.

Concurrently, there is massive long-term investment in nanotech applications via the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Strategic Plan. This 60-page document lays out a projected future "to understand and control matter" for the management of every facet of human life within the surveillance matrix of environment, health and safety. Twenty-five U.S. Federal agencies are participating.

The concept of Smart Dust has been applied and/or proposed for use in the following ways, just to name a few:

• Nano sensors for use in agriculture that measure crops and environmental conditions.
• Bomb-sniffing plants using rewired DNA to detect explosives and biological agents.
• "Smart Dust" motes that wirelessly transmit data on temperature, light, and movement (this can also be used in currency to track cash).

However, this is the first time that there is a working plan to apply Smart Dust to the human brain. Researchers claim it will be some time before (if ever) this is workable. One aspect that is interesting to note, is that once these particles are sent into the brain, it will be ultrasound that activates the system for full monitoring. This is an area of research that also has been looked at by DARPA as one of the future methods of mind control.

Their idea is to sprinkle electronic sensors the size of dust particles into the cortex and to interrogate them remotely using ultrasound. The ultrasound also powers this so-called neural dust.

Each particle of neural dust consists of standard CMOS circuits and sensors that measure the electrical activity in neurons nearby...

The neural dust is interrogated by another component placed beneath the scale but powered from outside the body. This generates the ultrasound that powers the neural dust and sensors that listen out for their response, rather like an RFID system.

The system is also tetherless–the data is collected and stored outside the body for later analysis. (source)

Read "tetherless" as "wireless" -- or remote controlled analysis of the human brain, thus opening the door (theoretically) for remote mind control. As I've highlighted before, this is a two-way street -- some people might feel content, for example, with sending their brain's information out to a doctor for evaluation, but this sensor network could also transmit data back, as is admitted here:

That’s why Seo and co have chosen ultrasound to send and receive data. They calculate that the power required to use electromagnetic waves on the scale would generate a damaging amount of heat because of the amount of energy the body absorbs and the troubling signal-to-noise ratios at this scale.

By contrast, ultrasound is a much more efficient and should allow the transmission of at least 10 million times more power than electromagnetic waves at the same scale. (emphasis added).

In case anyone believes that this has little chance of success, MIT highlights that one of the authors of the research has already achieved this with a remote controlled beetle.

The human brain is clearly of vast, perhaps infinite, complexity -- and this is without even introducing concepts such as "the mind" or "the soul." Nevertheless, it is clear that the reductionists are doing their very best to "Solve the Brain" -- measuring it, mapping it, and making sense of it. (source)

Are we to believe that "controlling it" has been left off the list for mere ethical reasons? Not likely.

Full paper available here:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1307.2196v1.pdf

[Wombaticus Rex]

....actual biological ET entities coming to Earth to visit is the absolute least efficient possible method for interstellar exploration. Consider this passage from Michio Kaku’s excellent article on “The Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations”:

For example, nanotechnology may facilitate the development of Von Neumann probes. As physicist Richard Feynman observed in his seminal essay, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” there is nothing in the laws of physics which prevents building armies of molecular-sized machines. At present, scientists have already built atomic-sized curiosities, such as an atomic abacus with Buckyballs and an atomic guitar with strings about 100 atoms across.

Paul Davies speculates that a space-faring civilization could use nanotechnology to build miniature probes to explore the galaxy, perhaps no bigger than your palm. Davies says, “The tiny probes I’m talking about will be so inconspicuous that it’s no surprise that we haven’t come across one. It’s not the sort of thing that you’re going to trip over in your back yard. So if that is the way technology develops, namely, smaller, faster, cheaper and if other civilizations have gone this route, then we could be surrounded by surveillance devices.”

[Mythic Time]

And here I was working on a story I naively thought was "science fiction," in which an advanced computer uses nanoparticles not to monitor stuff, but to alter perceived reality by creating "stiff" holograms. Silly me.

[MinM]

Tim Shorrock ‏@TimothyS 6 hours ago

The Omidyar-InQTel-Dust Inc. deal was in 2004. @MarkAmesExiled