Computers used to consume whole rooms, but now one computer can fit on the edge of a nickel. At just one millimeter cubed, the Michigan Micro Mote¹ (M^3) is the smallest autonomous² computer in the world.

最初的计算机要占用整个房间的空间，现在最小的电脑和硬币厚度一样。只有一立方毫米，M^3是世界上最小的电脑。

For over a decade, the faculty³ and students at the University of Michigan's computer science department have been working on the M^3. As the Internet of Things (IoT) gets bigger, the Michigan team is pushing to make computers ever smaller.

十多年来，密歇根大学的计算机科学系的教师和学生致力于研发M^3。随着物联网的规模越来越大，密歇根这个研究团队把电脑设计得更加轻巧。

Despite its tiny size, the M^3 has the ability to take pictures, read temperatures and record pressure readings. Researchers hope to implement⁴ the microcomputer⁵ into a variety of applications ranging from medical to industrial purposes.

尽管M^3的尺寸微小，但它能拍照，能测温度和压力。研究人员希望从医疗到工业实现微机用到各种应用程序中。

Due to its micro-size, the M^3 can actually be injected into the body, where it can then perform ECGs and also take pressure and temperature readings. The oil industry is also interested in inserting the Micro Mote into oil wells to help detect pockets of oil that can still be extracted before moving on to new sources.

因其尺度微小，其实，M^3可以注植入体内，还可以做心电图，测量压力和温度。石油行业也对未来能将M^3插入油井而很感兴趣，在开采新能源之前，它可以帮助检测石油的剩余储量。

The Michigan faculty sees the Micro Mote as a way to never lose anything again. The vision is that people would buy a couple of M^3s and stick the computers to their keys, wallet, and anything else they don't want to lose. And using a central system, people would be able to locate their belongings⁶ within the confines of their home.

密歇根大学的教师认为这款微机再也不会被弄丢了，买一对系在钥匙上，或放在钱包里，或安置在不易丢失的地方即可。还可以使用中央处理系统把它定位在可寻范围内。

As the tech industry pursues the IoT movement, size and power are everything. In order to make the micro mote as unobtrusive as possible, the scientists had to find a way to scale down the computer's battery size.

随着科技行业所追求的物联网运动，机身大小和电池电量就是战胜一切的法宝。为了让它尽量不引人注目，科学家们必须想方法减少电脑电池的大小。

"What people don't realize is a very large part of the volume of a computer for instance in a cellphone is actually consumed by the battery," said David Blaauw, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan. "So by bringing down the power, we can bring down the battery size, and we can bring down the whole system down in size."

据密歇根大学电气工程和计算机科学教授大卫·布劳所说，“人们没有意识到电脑自身体积大则耗很一大部分的电量，例如，手机电池的电量实际上是被手机自身所消耗掉。”“通过降低耗电量的方式，我们可以设计小电池来降低整个设备系统的尺寸。”

With no space for a keyboard, mouse or display, the faculty and students had to invent a different way to communicate with the micro mote. The M^3 is programmed and charged via light. By strobing light at a high frequency, the operator is able to send information to the computer. Once the Micro Mote processes the data, it is able to send the information to a central computer via conventional radio frequencies.

没有设计键盘、鼠标或显示器的空间，教师和学生发明了一种与M^3交流的方式。把M^3编程通过光来充电。通过高频率的频闪光，操作员可以将信息发送到计算机。M^3处理数据时，它可以通过传统的无线电频率发送信息到中央计算机。