Ant-size radios for the Internet of Things

The day is not far off when a patient admitted to a hospital will be wearing a tiny sensor affixed to a Band-Aid that continuously transmits body temperature to a computer that monitors readings 24-hours a day for signs of infection.

That’s just one of the applications in the Internet of Things (IoT) that Amin Arbabian, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, foresees will result from new ant-size radios being developed by researchers at Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley.

These ultra-low power smart radios that can provide unique IP addresses and their locations are a key ingredient in the connected world of the IoT.

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Imagine how prolific this technology could become! You withdraw a couple of $100 bills from an ATM and then walk past a transceiver that turns on the radio and gets a status for each tagged item; what if those bills were recently involved in a robbery or drug bust? Lots of shades of Big Brother possible here with this technology!