Memory Spots
And yet another interesting technology option popped up in web articles today. HP has announced the development of the “memory spot”, a tiny wireless memory chip that can be place on virtually anything. Only around one or two millimeters on a side, the chip is embedded on a small adhesive circle about the size of a paper punch. The prototype holds 512k, but in production they expect to increase that by at least three or four times. In quantities, they hope to get the cost down to around a dollar.
This is not simply a memory chip - it also has a processor. It’s really a tiny little computer. To put this in perspective, when I started in computers in 1982, an Apple ][e computer cost around $2,000. It had only 48k of memory! Adjusting for inflation, that Apple would cost $4,000 today. This tiny computer that HP has developed will cost 1/4000 of that, yet have more than ten times the memory storage.
And, as I said, it is wireless. What can you do with it? Imagine sending a picture of the beloved granddaughter playing soccer to Grandma and Grandpa, and in the corner is a small circle. They place their wireless reader over the dot, and in moments they hear the voice of their grandchild describing kicking her first goal. Or dots in textbooks that download video files to a handheld computer, or data files for experiments into a graphing calculator. A student-created guidebook of the local beach has audio files describing the sea life you can find at low tide.
That’s what we are imagining today. In fact, the question What can we do with it? will be answered again and again with innovative ideas we can’t even yet imagine. It’s our kids that will get to do that - and it would sure be cool if they were offered the chance develop those new ideas in school.