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"The writing is clicking away in my head and piling up, and unless I get it on paper somehow it's going to create uncomfortable pressure in my skull."
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Dustmote | ||
| A tiny sensor device that could also form networks with other motes. |
These devices are also called "localizers" in the novel.
| The dustmote image swelled until it was a meter across and almost forty centimeters high. The head-up display automation painted appropriate reflections and shadows.
"Thanks." Trinli stood so they could all see him over the top of the lens-shaped gadget. "This is the basic Qeng Ho localizer - normally embedded in protective barriers, and so on. But see, in a benign environment - even outside in the shade - it is quite self-sufficient." "Power?" said Reynolt. Trinli waved his hand dismissively. "Just pulse them with microwaves, maybe a dozen times a second. I don't know the details, but I've seen them used in much larger numbers on some projects. I'm sure that would give finer control. As for sensors, these puppies have several simple things built in - temperature, light level, sonics." |
| Technovelgy from A Deepness in the Sky,
by Vernor Vinge. Published by Not known in 1999 Additional resources -
|
Here's another bit:
...these dustmotes already had sensors and independence built in. They weren't an embedded component of a system; they could be the system itself.
For a modern analog, take a look at multi-hop RFID tags.
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More Ideas
and Technology from A Deepness in the Sky
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and Technology by Vernor Vinge
Tech news articles related to A Deepness in the Sky
Tech news articles related to works by Vernor Vinge
Dustmote-related
news articles:
- Multi-Hop RFID Tags Track Monkeys
- Ultrasonic Wireless ‘Neural Dust’ Sensors For Medical Monitoring
| AI Worms That Spread |
| Great. Now AIs Have Access To Hacking Tools |
| Tongue-Controlled Tong Wearable Mouth Computer |
| Interpol Launches Metaverse For Law Enforcement |
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
'The car had no steering wheel, and no one drove!'
Now that's power walking that Hugo Gernsback would have approved.
'It was disturbing to think of the Flatline as a construct...'
'...he rewired the delivery robot so that it would serve him midnight snacks.'
'On went the electric-yacht faster and still faster.'
'...the huge vessel had spun, with a sickening lurch, through a complete half-circle, the instant the power was reversed.'
'...he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it.'
