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It’s an exciting possibility, but it will be years before it comes to fruition, McWalter conceded. “Still a lot of research goes to make that available to everyone in the right form factor and the right cost, but such things are emerging right now,” he said.
McWalter believes that the microsystem could one day change the way we think about medical diagnosis. “When you’re measuring some of those parameters frequently, you can extend this to measuring blood sugar or oxygen and carbon dioxide content in the bloodstream,” McWalter said. “If you can monitor those things continuously, you get a very different picture of human physiology.”
For IT, McWalter speculated that the industry could have a role to play in developing the technology. “The software applications have to be there in order (for microsystems) to be able to communicate with the cell phone,” McWalter said. “You need the application on the cell phone that would then talk to base stations. You need to have some good networking protocols.”
Already, microsystems are showing up in mobile devices -- in central systems and radios. Additionally, McWalter sees a use for microsystems in security and sensing applications. “That’s going to carry on and there will be new things to do with that,” he said.
Microsystems could extend the reach of IT by harnessing technologies like data gathering, analysis and transmission to “sense and control the environment that people live in,” McWalter said.
“I think this whole concept of the microsystem actually is a little bit of a change in the manufacturing paradigm,” he said. “It gives you a chance to get into some elements of manufacturing that perhaps you thought were lost or had gone away. I think the coupling between design and manufacturing for these microsystems actually will enable maybe a resurgence in manufacturing. I am hopeful indeed.”
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