HP recently announced that its researchers have developed a miniature wireless data chip, the size of a grain of rice, that could provide broad access to digital content in the physical world
With no equal in terms of its combination of size, memory capacity and data access speed, the tiny chip could be stuck on or embedded in almost any object and make available information and content now found mostly on electronic devices or the Internet.
Some of the potential applications include:
- Medical records: Embed a Memory Spot chip into a hospital patient’s wrist band and full medical and drug records can be kept securely available.
- providing audio-visual supplements to postcards and photos; Audio photo: Attach a chip to the prints of photographs and add music, commentary or ambient sound to enhance the enjoyment of viewing photos; Digital postcards: Send a traditional holiday postcard to family and friends with a chip containing digital pictures of a vacation, plus sounds and even video clips.
- helping fight counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry; Anti-counterfeit tags: Counterfeit drugs are a significant problem globally. Memory Spot chips can contain secure information about the manufacture and quality of pharmaceuticals. When added to a drug container, this can prove their authenticity. A similar process could be used to verify high-value engineering, aviation components and legitimate electronics from gray market electronics.
- adding security to identity cards and passports;
- embedding digital warranties in products
- supplying additional information for printed documents; Perfect photocopies: A Memory Spot chip attached to a cover sheet eliminates the need to copy the original document. Just read the perfect digital version into the photocopier and the result will be sharp output every time, no matter how many copies are needed, and avoiding any possibility of the originals jamming in the feeder.
- Talking books, business cards, presentation etc...
- Business plans with a 60 second elevator pitch
- Resumes with your one minute sales video
- 100's of other applications that we haven't thought of yet.
How it works
The experimental chip, developed by the “Memory Spot” research team at HP Labs, is a memory device based on CMOS (a widely used, low-power integrated circuit design) and that is 2 mm to 4 mm square, with a built-in antenna. The chips could be embedded in a sheet of paper or stuck to any surface, and could eventually be available in a booklet as self-adhesive dots.
The chip has a 10 megabits-per-second data transfer rate – 10 times faster than Bluetooth™ wireless technology and comparable to Wi-Fi speeds – effectively giving users instant retrieval of information in audio, video, photo or document form. With a storage capacity ranging from 256 kilobits to 4 megabits in working prototypes, it could store a very short video clip, several images or dozens of pages of text. Future versions could have larger capacities
Information can be accessed by a read-write device that could be incorporated into a cell phone, PDA, camera, printer or other devices To access information, the read-write device is positioned closely over the chip, which is then powered so that the stored data is transferred instantly to the display of the phone, camera or PDA or printed out by the printer. Users could also add information to the chip using the various devices.
The chip incorporates a built-in antenna and is completely self-contained, with no need for a battery or external electronics. It receives power through inductive coupling from a special read-write device, which can then extract content from the memory on the chip. Inductive coupling is the transfer of energy from one circuit component to another through a shared electromagnetic field. A change in current flow through one device induces current flow in the other device.
ETA: 2-3 years before we see this on the market, but now is the time to start thinking about how to incorporate this new technology into your future products or services and what new business models could result from this. Intellivate (intelligence + elevate) your benign products now.
Key success factors:
HP will need to prove that devices with these spots are 100% secure and that they are tamper-proof. This will likely be the next big target of attack for hackers and black-marketeers.
But with the backing of HP and if the mobile handset vendors come on-board to flood the market with ubiquitous readers/writers on the next gen of cell phones, then this has the potential to be a winner technology.
Need some help thinking through new opportunity windows for this technology? Call or email us about setting up an Idea Lab session for your development, marketing and strategy staff.
Source: HP press release
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