– Researchers led by Brown University engineers have developed a novel wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit and receive data from thousands of microelectronic chips, each smaller than a grain of salt.
– The sensor network is designed so the chips can be implanted in the body or integrated into wearable devices. Each chip mimics how neurons communicate via electrical spikes to transmit data wirelessly using radio waves.
– This saves energy and bandwidth compared to traditional sensor networks that require perfect synchronization. It is inspired by the sparse and efficient communication of the brain.
– The sensors detect specific events as spikes and transmit the data independently without coordinating, allowing thousands to operate simultaneously without flooding the receiver.
– This work advances large-scale wireless sensor technology and lays the foundation for the next generation of implantable and wearable biomedical sensors to map physiological activity.
– Potential applications include monitoring temperature, substances, and recording and stimulating brain activity with thousands of neural sensors.
– Further optimization and testing is still needed but this breakthrough opens doors for vast sensor networks to transform medical technologies.
Source: scitechdaily
