First complete millimeter-scale computer developed

Scientists from the University of Michigan have made significant advances towards such a millimeter-scale computer, a field of electronics which is expected to expand massively over the next few years.

The "computer", an eye pressure monitoring system for glaucoma patients is only a few millimeters across. Similar systems could make practically anything "smart". They could be used to track structural deficits in buildings as they develop, they could be used to track pollution or make any object traceable.

The implantable eye pressure monitor. (Credit: Greg Chen)

They are once again in line with Bell's law, which states that about once every decade there are computers that are smaller and at the same time better at what they are doing than before. The law has held up with the 1960s' mainframes through the '80s' personal computers, the '90s' notebooks and the new millennium's smart phones.

I myself expect these "millimeter computers" to be the next great advancement in computing, although they will get competition from quantum computing over the next few years and decades as well.

Especially for medical purposes there are many possible applications for these devices, not just measuring eye pressure, but possibly replacing eyes, allowing blind people to see again, or constantly monitoring bloodstreams of hospital patients, so any dangerous changes can be counteracted at once.