Microsoft Practices Sensor-ship
The ability to scatter lots of wireless sensors over a wide area has tremendous potential, whether it’s tracking the melting of a glacier, the stress on a bridge span or the temperature in your home. The trick? Making them cheap enough so you can use plenty, and having them last long enough so you don’t break the bank or your back changing batteries (those trips to the glacier add up). This week, Microsoft showed us a prototype version of a wireless sensor that tackles both challenges.
The sensors shown at Microsoft’s TechFest (the company’s annual science fair) run on a pair of AA batteries for up to four years. And while they didn’t have cost estimates for a final production model, the basic data processing/radio transmitter chips from TI sell for only about $3 each.
More info here.
March 11th, 2008 05:37
I can’t seem to do trackbacks from my blog, but I posted an article referencing this post and breaking down the cost of the Microsoft Sensor Modules. You can find it here:
http://freaklabs.org/index.php/Misc/microsoft-sensor-modules-rough-cost-breakdown.html
Akiba
March 11th, 2008 19:16
I had to move my blog post. Here is the working link.
http://freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/Misc/microsoft-sensor-modules-rough-cost-breakdown.html