Smart Dust


The game-changing idea that came from an accident that will be discussed is Smart Dust.  The accident which occurred involved a graduate Chemistry student by the name of Jamie Link.  She was working with a silicon chip, which dropped, and the chip shattered.  However, she noticed that the silicon chip pieces, even in their shattered state, were yet continuing to transmit signals.  With the help of her professor, Jamie realized that the shattered pieces of the silicon chip emulated as miniature sensors.  Together, they conceived to dub the silicon chip's shattered miniature pieces 'Smart Dust' (Orf, 2013).  The rest of the discussion will surround functional applications of Smart Dust and examples, advantages and disadvantages, as well as the forces involved concerning Smart Dust.

The description of Smart Dust has evolved to be recognized as a passive nanoscale device that consists of the four properties: "the ability to position itself, sense its environment, to perform data or signal processing, and to effect a change in or communicate with the macroscopic world" (Sailor & Link, 2005, p. 1376).   A functional Smart Dust comprises numerous tiny wireless microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) of 20 micrometers to 1 millimeter in dimension.  MEMS have been coined as motes, which are outfitted with sensors, cameras, and other communication systems (Bose, 2020).  Data that is collected via radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is wirelessly transmitted to a computer network by the Smart Dust.  Smart Dust's manufacture utilizes microfabrication methods that enable it to hover aloft in its surroundings like Dust (Bose, 2020).  The ability of Smart Dust to mature to the nanoscale has opened many possible potential applications.

Smart Dust Applications

Smart Dust's ability to collect detailed information involving multidimensional situations of varying dynamics without human intervention lends its application to several areas.  Smart Dust can have applications in agriculture, industries, security, logistics, the transport sector, military, travel safety, and medical diagnostics (Bose, 2020).  The monitoring of the crop environment in the agriculture industry can lead to increased yield and quality.  Smart Dust use in industries to monitor critical equipment can allow for intervention before equipment breakdown occurs.  Smart Dust in security and military applications allows for densely distributed wireless sensor networks and novel wide-area surveillance capabilities (Edinburgh, 2018).  The ability to track goods from inception to stores allows for the granularity of inventory control for logistics.  The research resulting in the advancement of Smart Dust regarding medical diagnostics has developed neural Dust.

The medical application of Smart Dust into Neural Dust has opened the pathways for Neural Dust to be used in critical drug delivery methods to the treatment of paralysis.  The University of California, Berkeley has researched using Neural Dust to sprinkle in the cortex and use ultrasound to interrogate the Neural Dust (Adams, 2017).  The distributed system of sensors and circuits is used to translate high-frequency sound waves into electrical signals back and forth.  The Neural Dust's potential eventual use stands to replace the wires employed in the brain-machine interface (BMI) discussed in previous blog concerning the TED Talk about Neuralink.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Some of the advantages and disadvantages of Smart Dust as it applies to some of the previously discussed applications will now be shared.  Smart Dust's advantages for agriculture are increased productivity, efficient management of time, and better fertilizer management, resulting in less run-off into streams and tributaries.  Smart Dust's industrial advantages are reduction in system and infrastructure costs, productivity surge, and boosting of safety, efficiency, and compliance (Arora, 2021).  Advantages in an office and security are deploying Smart Dust replacing routers and saving on wiring and power consumption.  Smart Dust's security advantages are through them being GPS equipped, allowing for tracking of personnel and visitors, ensuring restricted areas are avoided.

There are two main disadvantages of the use of Smart Dust.  Cost at this time is a significant impediment, as the implementation of a constellation of Smart Dust and all supporting components is costly.  The second disadvantage is the issue of privacy (Arora, 2021).  Smart Dust, when implemented, is not visible in the surrounding environment, yet its ability to record and track minute nuances provides ethical questions.

Forces

The second disadvantage of Smart Dust privacy brings the discussion of forces to the forefront.  The force of ethics will shape Smart Dust because people are concerned about surveillance mechanisms, but they can't see them.  Also, within an organization, questions of which employees will review the data generated by Smart Dust and how much of the captured data the employees will have access to.  Another scenario mentioned earlier is that of use of neural Dust opens up ethical questions and others, which also applied regarding Neuralink.

Legal and ethical forces may define Neural Dust in that they may reduce its likelihood of success.  Ethical forces such that technology permits retrieving of neural data for malicious activities constitute a significant prohibition for Neural Dust success.  The autobiographical information can be hacked from a target's mind. Presently, these systems are purposely designed with weak encryption, so computations on the data can occur faster (WAHAL, 2019).  When brains are interconnected together, how does one define themselves as a person?  The legal force that may reduce the likelihood of Neural Dust success is intellectual property ambiguity.  There are the aspects of neural property, ideas, and thoughts.  At the same time, an individual using Neural Dust presents the case of who is the owner of the thoughts and ideas – intellectual property, since it is not purely the individual that has created them. 

Technical forces affecting Smart Dust have already proven positive in the enhancement of Smart Dust to the nanoscale and various configurations allowing for IoT adoption.  Currently, economic forces prohibit the broader adoption of Smart Dust; however, as innovations progress, the associated costs should decrease, and return on investment (ROI) should increase.

 

References

Adams, D. (2017, November 17). The best accidental inventions prove sometimes it's better not to try. Retrieved from digitaltrends: https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/best-accidental-inventions/

 Arora, M. (2021, February 25). What is Smart Dust? Advantages & Disadvantages. Retrieved from CatchUpdates: https://catchupdates.com/smart-dust/

Bose, P. (2020, October 5). Advancements in Nanotechnology-Based Smart Dust. Retrieved from AZONANO:                       https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=5560

Edinburgh, D. (2018). THE FUTURE OF ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING FOR  DEFENCE.

Orf, D. (2013, June 27). 10 Awesome Accidental Discoveries. Retrieved from Popular Mechanics: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/g1216/10-awesome-accidental-discoveries/

Sailor, M. J., & Link, J. R. (2005). "Smart dust": nanostructured devices in a grain of sand. Chemical                                         Communications(11), 1375-1383.

WAHAL, M. (2019). Neural Privacy, Personhood and Agency with Brain-To-Brain Interfacing. Retrieved from mrinalwahal. com/papers/Neuroethics. pdf. 

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