Imagine tiny sensors able to detect roadside bombs in Iraq or a thin strip of wires less than two inches long, based on the same technology, that works as an ID tag for fresh meat, monitoring temperature, location and quantity.

It's this networking of sensors that makes it possible to do the inventory at Walmart in five minutes.  The sensor platform, the computer board itself, sends out a signature that is altered in the sensor, depending on what you want the microprocessor to tell you, temperature, humidity, etc.  That signal is then reflected back and reprocessed at the platform for analysis by the user.

"This is what will replace barcodes," said Dr. Dejan Raskovic, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, while pinching a miniature sensor between his fingers.

Nanotechnology can be used for simple tasks like doing a store's inventory, and even top-secret defense intelligence applications, such as surveillance and biochemical detection.  UAF has often been at the forefront of developing new technology, but recently the university's Office of Electronic Miniaturization has achieved some serious results with substantial funding from the National Science Foundation and the Defense Intelligence Agency. 

"This opens up a lot of opportunity in research," said Raskovic.  The goal of his project funded by the National Science Foundation is to get power consumption for small sensor nodes and platforms down to a very low level.  Creating smaller and smaller prototypes is fine, Raskovic said, "but if you have to hook it up to a car battery, it's no good."

On Dec. 7, the Office of Electronic Miniaturization announced they had successfully produced and tested two batches of more complicated microelectronic devices.  Created in UAF's multi-million dollar Clean Room, the prototypes passed with flying colors.

"Actually, these first two lots exceeded a 90 percent yield, which is a very good indication of overall process capability," said David Bunzow, OEM's deputy director of facilities and operations in a press release.

"The University part of it is idea development," said Greg Walker, who sits on the advisory panel for the Measurement and Signatures Intelligence (MASINT) Research Program, an arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency.  Walker is also the Range Manager for UAF's Poker Flat Research Range, and he represents university interests on the MASINT panel, which includes a chief scientist for the CIA and high-level managers for the National Security Agency and the FBI.

"Fundamentally, the intelligence community has exploited existing research," Walker said.  "[MASINT] was created to look at basic research that would be relevant to intelligence."

For example, basic research into reducing power consumption produces a miniature sensor that is very difficult to detect, and for use in surveillance and security said Dr. Raskovic, "It cannot be easily detected."

Walker said that one proposal started off as an idea to use small sensors for tracking and monitoring grizzly bears and was later suggested as a possible way to instantly check the well-being of soldiers in the battlefield by looking at their heart rates, body temperatures, and other stress level indicators.  To Walker's surprise, that project received no funding. 

During the first year of funding, starting last summer, MASINT awarded three of their 10 grants to UAF research projects.  The total was around $600,000, Walker said, and next year they hope to have two or three more successful proposals.

Though applications for high-stakes intelligence purposes often take a long time to develop, simple versions of the same technology are already used in the marketplace.

"Even in your car you probably have a lot of sensors around you," Raskovic said, that are sensing everything from oxygen to traction, as in anti-lock brake systems.  He has even seen a dishwasher that boasts an "intelligence sensor network."

"They're sensing how dirty your dishes are."

Earlier this year, the top 100 suppliers of Walmart were directed to ship their goods with radio frequency identification tags, or RFID.  For now, this will allow the stores to track pallets of merchandise and, if it becomes profitable, they could be able to track individual items if the price of the technology drops in the future. 

Raskovic said an estimated 7 billion RFID tags were to be created in 2005, and that the cost would eventually be down to a penny apiece.  "It's going to be very hard to steal from stores."

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