Rethinking the Limits to Miniaturization

In an earlier blog post I wrote:

"Did you know 4.0" ends with a few predictions: 2020, should bring us primary access to the internet through smartphones and computers with computing power of a cell phone that could fit in a blood cell.  I am not so sure that these predictions will come true.  Something that we have not yet imagined may be the primary means of accessing the internet at the end of this decade; there may be a limitation to miniaturization, only time will tell.

I had doubts about the ability to squeeze the computing

power of a smartphone into a blood cell. Well… perhaps I

am wrong about the limits to miniaturization. I found a

recent article  discussing what is actually being done 

presently along the lines of miniaturization quite astonishing:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2381185,00.asp

The article “Be Careful Not to Inhale the World’s Smallest

Computer”,  Evan Dashevysky describes an extremely small

computer that has been designed by a team at the University

of Michigan's College of Engineering for use in medicine. 

Measuring in at around one cubic millimeter, it is a prototype

measuring device that would be implanted  in human eyeballs 

in order to take pressure readings related to glaucoma. Quoting 

the article  “…the system houses  an ultra low-power 

microprocessor, a pressure sensor, memory, a thin-film battery,

a solar cell, and a wireless radio with an antenna that can

transmit data to an external reader placed near the eye…”

This is beginning to sound like the “Did You Know 4.0” people

 are on to something. The device has a sophisticated  energy 

saving /conservation mode, where it only uses  energy on the 

order of nanowatts. It can take and save readings that it takes

 every fifteen minutes for a week and can be charged by

 10 hours of inside light or 1.5 hours of sunlight.   

Work is being done to help it communicate with other devices. 

Once communication with other devices become practical, 

I can see many of these nearly microscopic devices or 

their components being combined to make smaller

devices that are functional at the same level of smartphones

of today and actually going beyond them in functionality.   

No, we maynot have smartphone level computing power in

any devices the size of a blood cell yet, but I can see devices 

on the dimensional level of  a few cubic millimeters,  that 

can communicate with each other and be combined to create 

devices that are even thinner, lighter and more powerful than

the ipad. 

If miniaturization while increasing power and ability is 

possible, following Bells and Moore’s laws, we may soon be

on our way to things no one has yet imagined. (As described

 by Evan Dashevesky in this article...” Bell's Law of Computer

 Classes illustrates the process by which computers steadily  

evolve into ever  smaller and more efficient models. The law,

which works in correlation with Moore's Law  of exponentially

escalating processing muscle, describes how whole new

 classes of computers arise roughly once a decade…”

We may come to the point where a laptop, notebook or 

netbook computer even workstations  become ultra thin 

devices the size of a few coins-that are hooked up

to an ultrathin foldable or “roll-up-able” keyboards 

and screens, that could fit in a wallet or pocket. I also feel 

that privacy,  data protection and ethics will become even 

greater concerns. If a device the size of a cubic  millimeter can 

be placed on a car for instance or on a persons’ body or 

clothing without their knowledge, they could be tracked. While

there may  be some legitimate uses, such as parents being 

able to track teen-agers for instance or for skiers and hikers

to voluntarily make use of small devices that could 

communicate widely and used very little energy, in case they

were to get lost or stranded,  but I see much potential for abuse 

as power saving and miniaturization advances are made.