Transcript for Smart dust micro computers

(...) but in the future, every square inch of every city will be alive with intelligence.

Because every street and every bulding

will have a network of microcomputers

built right into them.

Dr. Chris Pister calls it 'Smart Dust'.

A Smart Dust, particle, or mote

is a wireless sensor with sensing computation,

communication, and power in one package.

This 'all-in-one' microcomputers will be small.

Very small.

The size of mote today is about the size of

a grain of rice.

Now we've shown that we can make the circuitry smaller of the light of

that eventually, it'll be possible to make things that are on a sub-million meters size scale.

Tiny specs of computer's Smart Dust

will form a vast invisible network

that can help manage the infrastructure

of even the largest city.

The smart cities in the future will take this

low-power, inexpensive and small technology

and basically distribute it everywhere.

These tiny computers record information about

their surroundings; information they can send

to other computers or to you.

The Smart Dust on the tracks will manager your commuter trains

and you'll know if it's running late.

Paddles will be able to report themselves

and warning your car. And you'll never have to

wait for a radio traffic report again.

They're monitoring the flow of traffic

and giving little alerts about what round is the driver ready to go

to keep the traffic moving.

Bridges will get a coding of Sarmt Dust particles that can warn us

when they detect stress fractures

helping avoid deadly colapses.

But Smart Dust will also allow buildings and streets to recognize you

and respond accordingly.

Think increasingly, the environment will respond to who you are

and adapt in consequence.

The city will know where you are if you want to.

Your workplace will know you.

Smart Dust at the entrance will boot up your computer.

And Smart Dust embedded in the elevator doors will automatically ring your floor.

Smart Dust is going to sense the environment

and allow us to improve the way that we live our lives.

No matter how we live in the future city, it'll be radically different.