Micro-sensors are making a lot of progress these days. MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon and many others are moving the ball forward thru collaboration much faster than would have been anticipated. The number of applications is staggering. Some is simply fun and games while others have great ramifications in medicine, robotics, military, space and institutional instruction. Virtual Keyboards, smart dust:

http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/

Student have been using them under their finger nails to count cards in the CT Indian casinos and the sensors are wired to their watches, displaying the results, pretend I did not tell you that. I refuse to reveal sources. Each time certain cards are played they tap out with their fingers on the table, using certain fingers for certain numbers such as 1’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10. A combination allows the addition to the nearest number. The other hand is used for Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces. Very clever, just imagine how rich Gates would be if he had that system to augment his card counting abilities in his room at Harvard? Moral of the Story? Never play cards with a Micro-Sensor Research Student at MIT and as per this article Berkeley either.

When Gray Davis was in office he signed into legislation a bill, which allows Indian Casinos in CA to grow and have more slots. So Berkeley students will not have to go up to Reno to score on the casinos there. Meanwhile as the card counting games continue, Pit Bosses are hiring similar students to put sensors on the table to catch people tapping and more remote hidden video cameras to catch cheaters. You cannot regulate morality can you?

Back to the subject of micro-sensors; These terrific new innovations are very unlimited for so many uses in the future; from wearable, walk around computers to sensors for robotics to be your personal electronic slaves to serve all man’s needs. Think on this.