Millimeter-sized Computer Created That Can Be Implanted in Human Eye
A computer as large as a speck of dust has been created, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. It's the prototype of a millimeter-sized computing system that can hold up to a week's worth of data and can be implanted in an area as small as the human eye.
It's been dubbed the Phoenix chip and is one cubic millimeter in size. It was originally designed to measure eye pressure in glaucoma patients. Within the computer is a low-power microprocessor, a pressure sensor, memory, a thin-film battery, a solar cell and wireless radio with an antenna to transmit data to an external reader device held near the eye.
Researchers say that the micro-computers and their wireless networks might some day be able be able to perform surveillance, track pollution, or make any object trackable.
"Our work is unique in the sense that that we're thinking about complete systems in which all the components are low-power and fit on the chip," Dennis Sylvester, professor at the University of Michigan told Computerworld. "We can collect data, store it, and transmit it. The applications for systems of this size are endless."
The tiny computers were presented at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The researchers noted Bell's Law, which says that there's a new class of computer (small, cheaper) every decade. With each new class, the volume shrinks b two orders of magnitude and the number of systems per person increases. In the 1960s, mainframe computers, like the ENIAC, filled a room. In the 1980s, desktop computers filled the top of a desk, literally. In the 1990s, laptops took over, and in the 2000, smartphones were the next reduction. Now in the 2010s, nanocomputers are the next logical step.
"When you get smaller than hand-held devices, you turn to these monitoring devices, said professor David Blaauw to Computerworld. "The next big challenge is to achieve millimeter-scale systems, which have a host of new applications for monitoring our bodies, our environment, and our buildings."
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