If you thought nothing on earth sleeps more than your dog, it turns out you're wrong.
Motes sleep 99% of the time.
David E. Culler and Hans Mulder, writing in Scientific American, explain that motes are thumb-size computers that combine microprocessors and memory with radio transceivers, onboard power supplies and a variety of sensors.
These very basic and simple systems automatically join up with their neighbors, and hundreds of motes working together can do some amazing things.
Motes can be used to monitor the health and movements of an elderly person who lives alone. Sensors in furniture, walls, appliances, plates and even on the person's body can report on their status. Test programs at elder care facilities in Portland, OR and Las Vegas use motion, pressure and infrared sensors.
Other tests are underway to track the movement of animals in the wild and the complex ecosystems surrounding a single large tree. As you might imagine, the military has many potential uses in mind for motes, such as tracking enemy movements and triangulating the sound of a gunshot to identify its precise location.
The reason they sleep so much is to save power. These are systems that have the greatest potential if they can operate for long periods - or better yet indefinitely - without maintenance or batteries.
In fact, numerous researchers are trying to make motes so efficient that they can generate sufficient power to operate from vibrations, temperature differences, the sun or wind.
