Went to a seminar today in the ICT building titled 'Java on Wireless Sensor Devices' given by Cristina Cifuentes (of Sun Labs), and now an Adjunct Professor at The University of Queensland. It was about the new 'SunSPOT' technology that Sun Microsystems has just released in a retail kit form, in the US. See the Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology) in figure 1 - they are about 10% larger than a matchbox.
Image #1 : Anatomy of a SunSPOT Device (courtesy of www.sunspotworld.com).These things are really aimed for somebody like me - i.e. I don't want to have to dabble in low level C code just to do things between the DigitalFriend and wireless sensors, I want to be able to do it in Java, in object-oriented programming at the very least, but probably in agent-oriented programming. Its not that I don't know C, I used to do training courses for it in the late 80's, it just feels like such a retrograde step - it would be like going back to riding an old bicycle in the rain after driving an Ford XR6 in the sun.
Cristina talked about 'programmable things', about 'programming the world', about earlier (non-Java) sensor projects, including: the Smart Dust project - where they eventually aim to do this stuff on a device the size of a grain of sand (i.e. currently hyperthetical, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartdust); Berkley Mote (8-bit processor); and the Intel Mote technology. SUN saw a market for mid level programmer-friendly devices based on 32bit processors for WSNs (wireless sensor networks) capable of running their Java technology - "for research and development purposes", before the smaller devices are widely available. Hence the matchbox-sized 'bit of dust' in figure 1, rather than the cubic millimeter version. The SunSPOT has built-in radio/wireless 802.15.4 antenna, 3-axis (x,y,z) accelerometer (for tracking the device in 3D), temperature sensor, light sensor, 8 tri-colour LEDs (i.e. thats an 8x1 pixel screen with 3 colours - not much chop!), 6 analog inputs for other external sensor input, 2 switches/buttons. The processor is a 180MHz 32bit ARM with 512K RAM / 4M Flash. It is "Java on bare metal", is programmer-friendly (can use any standard Java IDE hence high-level debugging on your desktop Mac, Windows, Linux, Unix box), runs multiple programs (multiple 'isolates'), allows over-the-air deployment. Sun Microsystems sees markets in: Robotics, Art, Toys, Personal Electronics, programming the world (i.e. what researchers call ubiquitous and pervasive computing) ... mmm, I've got to get one of these integrated with a DigitalFriend, to program the individual's personal world, things around the home.
When asked about battery life, she said it has 3 modes: deep sleep, shallow sleep, and awake. In deep sleep it will last about 950 days(!), but in fully awake mode all day, its good for about one day. Wireless range is 90 to 30 Metres (variation must depend on obstacles?). Its not Bluetooth.
She mentioned several projects that are using sensor networks in useful ways - on the San Francisco bridge, where they measure structural parameters (e.g. stress and strain), environmental projects including one used to track the spread of cane toads (rampant introduced pests) in Australia... if they are putting SunSPOTs on the back of toads, it will kill em one way or the other - if the payload doesn't wear them down, at $550 US for two SunSPOTs, people will be tracking them down for the devices and removing the toad:)
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