Microchips Making Mundane Objects Intelligent

Gone are the days when microchips were used only in computers and other sophisticated electronic devices. Thanks to hi-tech semiconductors, they are now found in the most mundane things. From toilets to pens and fishing reels to tombstones, chips are being embedded into objects to make them smarter and enhance their communication with us.

Steve Johnson from the Mercury News offers some examples of such microchip-embedded products that were once thought of low-tech, reinforcing the idea that chips would be ubiquitous in the future and make any object intelligent:

• Intelligent pens: Livescribe of Oakland sells a chip-powered ink pen equipped with a camera and audio recorder that’s designed to help people remember precisely what was said when   they review their handwritten notes. It synchronizes its voice recording with the pictures it takes of the words as they are jotted down. Then, if the pen is later tapped on one of the   scribbled words, it replays what was said when that note was taken.

• Computerized commodes: AquaOne Technologies of Westminster has introduced a toilet containing chips that automatically shut off the water when it springs a leak or starts to   overflow. And the Japanese company Toto reportedly has developed an intelligent potty that gathers health-related data from the user’s urine and automatically sends the information to   their doctor’s office.

• Fish beware: A number of fishing reels, including those made by Shimano of Japan, now have chips in them to help control how fast the spool of line spins. Some enthusiasts of the sport   say that results in longer, smoother casts. Pro-Troll of Concord also puts chips in its lures. The result, the company claims, “duplicates the electrical nerve discharge of a wounded bait   fish,” prompting other fish to bite it.

• Tombstone tech: A Waynesburg, Pa., company sells a coin-size, stainless steel-encased microchip for grave stone markets. Called the Memory Medallion, it tells the dead person’s story   in text, photos, video or audio histories, which visitors can access by pointing their Internet-enabled cell phones at it. The company says it has sold thousands of the medallions, which   recently were installed at a New York cemetery’s Sept. 11 memorial.

Silicon Valley: “Microchips now used in everything from toilets to tombstones”