Smaller than your nail

Karina Mann

"Smart Sensors: Invisible, Intelligent, and Enveloping." Envision. MITRE, 15 Apr. 2009. Web. 9 Feb. 2010. .

http://www.mitre.org/news/envision/spring_09/guharay.html

Technology Vocabulary/AOI:

1. MITRE: Group of engineers working on sensors and information technology
2. Health/Medicine

Synthesis:

This new technology is referred to as smart dust. It is able to do many things. The dust is able to sense things and send information back to a certain place. It can warn of many things and change depending on the desired affect. The smart sensor was invented to be used for making smart decisions and what to expect from a place.

The smart sensors are able to identify almost any material or element in the world. It can record vast information about the temperature or what it is in or around. It can test to see what is healthy or what is dangerous. It is a new precaution that people can use to tell if a place is safe or dangerous. If there is a poisonous gas in a certain area it will warn a person and let them know to stay away from that area.

For example, if there was an earthquake and people had been in the earthquake then smart sensors could be drizzled around the area of where the impact was. After a while a reading would come back. It would tell the people where the other people in danger are. With the temperature feature on the smart sensor it could probably detect where a big grow of people are from the higher temperature. That way lots of people could be saved. It would result in not as many causalities and less injuries. For people it would be a savior of their lives.

The new smart sensor technology could also probably predict what was going to happen in the whether or a certain period of time. If it picks up that it will rain and tells the people then the people will be able to go inside and not have to deal with it. It would especially be nice if it warned the people in there were any toxic chemicals in the rain that might hurt them, like acid rain, has harsh chemicals. After a while people could start testing all different kinds of materials to see if they are worn new or dangerous in any way. It would be helpful and safe.

SEI Analysis:

Privacy/Anomymity:
After a while the code to track a person will be possible. If a person wanted they could stick a smart sensor on them and probably get a lot of information from them. Many predators in the world are looking for where a person is who is cute to get them. A person could find someone else if they chose to. There would be a problem with privacy and anonymity.

If a cute girl where being followed she would notice. With this new kind of device she could be tracked and meet up the tracker somewhere or another without knowing it. With knowing her exact skin DNA the predator would be able to track her find her when she least expects it. That would end badly. There needs to be a more anatomist way of following patterns and not following humans.

Privacy and Anonymity would be a problem with the people because they would feel that they were being watched if they new about the sensors. It might be for their own good, but it is unnecessary to follow people in such a manner. A person could become more anonymous with the more people they see. That way a person is not centered in and trapped for what they have done if they did something wrong. The smart sensors would be easily spread and cover up the animosity of a person in a crowd. A certain protection is welcome when in a crowd and joined by others. If the person was alone and did not spread the smart sensors then there would be more of a problem with the safety of the person.

Intellectual Property:
In the world today there are many crimes and stealing. There is a way to steal almost anything possible. It could be anywhere and if a person wants it enough they will have it. Intellectual property would be a issue when dealing with smart senors. They are very highly helpful and well smart.

When a person patents their property no one is allowed to steal that idea for a sum of years if ever. If another person were to find a way around buying one and making their own it would be much easier. A person would reverse engineer the smart sensor they could change it a little bit and create their own. It would be stealing their intellectual property and infringing on their rights. It would be very upsetting when their would be tons on market when it was someone's original idea to do it so they could have the fame and recognition.

With stealing in this world it would not be unheard of if someone tried to reverse engineer the smart sensor technology. It might take a while, but it could be possible for another person to invent a similar thing that was basically the same idea. It would be very unfair to the original person who made it, but they must have not worked as hard as they should have on it or someone would not have been able to decode it so easily. A person should have his rights and if another was caught using a similar technique then he should be penalized. It is a problem that must be dealt with.

Control:
When discussing smart sensors there is much talk of what is going to be done with them, but who exactly will be using them? It seems unclear of what or who will be in control of these smart sensors. If it is everyday people then it will cause other social and ethical issues to arise. If it isn't them it must be the government who would be watching. With the government watching it would be for the safety of the people making sure that no one gets hurt.

The government having the control of all the smart sensors would end up leaving the public even more open to being seen. A person could be wrongly accused for something if one of the sensors around him had been around someone else during a certain time. There would be lots of mistakes that would be caused if the sensors were only controlled by the government. If the smart sensors are used for the protection of the people if there was an earthquake than it would be reasonable for them to have some smart sensors to search for the people. That way less people would be likely to die.

If everyone could control the new smart sensor technology it would also lead to other problems of animosity and security. A person should have some sensor technology if they have a legal use for it in research or study. It could be a special right for a scientist to have and use to conduct surveys and tests on people with their permission. With them having control all people would get a chance to interact with the smart sensor technology and not be rejected and unknowing of what it is. Control with few people would be ideal.