U.S. researchers have developed a magnetic sensor smaller than a grain of rice and sensitive enough to detect a fetal heart beat...described... in the journal Nature Photonics, provides a low-cost and portable way to detect changes in a magnetic field...
The device is 1,000 times more sensitive than NIST's last microchip-sized mini-sensor. Right now it is just a prototype, but Kitching said the device could be used in a range of applications, from fetal heart monitoring to screening for explosives.
Because of its small size, it could run for several weeks on a single AA battery, he (John Kitching of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST)
said.
Magnetic fields are all over the place," Kitching said."
~It's got me thinking about hippies and their 'good vibrations'.
Is this what's meant by 'sensor dust'? Dusting a battlefield with these devices. (What happens to the batteries?)
How WOULD sensors so small differentiate among various energy sources? Location i.e. placement of the sensor will be all that's required?
Posted by Stubbornson at November 2, 2007 04:02 PM