Graphene-based nano-antennas may enable cooperating smart dust swarms

02-05-2014 • http://www.gizmag.com, By Brian Dodson

Cooperating swarms of micron-sized devices (motes) offer completely new solutions and capabilities that can hardly be imagined. However, cooperation requires communication, and conventional radio or optical networking simply isn't practical at this size. Now researchers at Georgia Tech have invented a plasmonic graphene nano-antenna that can be efficiently used at millimeter radio wavelengths, taking one more step toward smart dust.

Graphene is a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms that is positioned to become one of the wonder materials of the 21st Century. Among graphene's unique properties is that its transport electrons behave as if they are without mass, and travel at about 0.3 percent of the speed of light regardless of their energy.

1 Comments in Response to Graphene-based nano-antennas may enable cooperating smart dust swarms

Comment by PureTrust

Entered on: 2/5/2014 10:26:28 AM

Imagine, smart dust all over the place - in your kitchen, under the bed, on the coffee table, in your computer... all of it communicating with other smart dust so that it can find out exactly what you are doing on your computer... and after further development, observe, camera-like, all of your activities.

Think of it. No need for cellphones. No way to have any privacy. Simply talk to the dust, and the appropriat answer from the appropriate person will come to you, audio and video... through the dust in your ears, and the dust on your eyeballs, and all the linking computerized smart dust worldwide.

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