A vision of Z-devices - page 1

Z-devices let you build a project very easily, providing the various parts: motors, sensors, switches, etc, which you can then command to do various high-level functions, and combine on your Z-network to create a larger coordinated whole. And without any wiring or software drivers or algorithms to worry about.

Let's go a bit further into the future. Let's imagine a Z-chip that is hardly a speck of dust. Imagine that we could put one inside even smaller objects than servos and displays. Imagine we could put one inside an LED, or a push-button switch, or a temperature sensor the size of a grain of rice.

Its power could be harvested from the ambient environment. A push-bottom switch might be powered by the motion of being pushed. A temperature sensor might be powered by a thermal gradient. Any of them might also be powered by the ambient radio energy hitting their antenna. Note that a switch might not need power except when pushed, and then only enough to transmit one packet.

And of course, where more power was needed, there could always be wires.

For many applications, our future Z-chip could have a very low power radio with a range of just a few centimeters. As the Z-network can hop data from one Z-chip to the next, we only need a radio powerful enough to reach the closest other Z-chip in our network.