Rick Nelson

Out, damned Memory Spot!
July 17, 2006

It looks as if inappropriate feature creep has just begun. USA Today reports that Hewlett-Packard researchers have developed a dot-sized chip called a Memory Spot. A Memory Spot can store a song, photo, or 100-page text document, the paper reports, adding that the chip needs no battery and can communicate wirelessly.

It’s not only our sneakers that will be serenading us--so, too, will any product to which HP and its coconspirators, including Freescale (www.freescale.com) and Zensys (www.zen-sys.com), can affix their diabolical Memory Spot or equivalent devices.

I was in a meeting today where I had the misfortune to hear a report of a wireless dentist chair. From my earliest unpleasant dental experiences, I’ve been comforted by the fact that the dental chair has remained sequestered in the office above the clothing shop on Second Street in Clearfield, PA, where I grew up. Now, I can envision the darned thing pursuing me 24/7. Perhaps such an application might be good for my dental hygiene, but enough is enough.

But of course, the big problem (apart from my childish fear of dentists) is what will myriad wireless Memory Spots per cubic meter mean with respect to proper operation of equipment conforming to wireless-communications standards. Are vendors of test-and-measurement equipment up to the task of determining the effects of such promiscuous wireless communicators on available limited spectrum?

Posted by Rick Nelson on July 17, 2006 | Comments (1)