It's the wave of the future, and you can call it eco technology. Computer chip maker Intel says it is working on tiny devices that could have an environmental benefit such as chip-size sensors that monitor air quality and devices that "scavenge" energy from the environment.

These products are not yet on the market, but are being tested. Intel said it has designed tiny sensors that can continuously analyze pollution and has placed those sensors in small boxes attached to street-sweeping machines in San Francisco. A transmitter, connected to the sensor, relays the data to whoever needs it. Distributed around the globe, these devices could give scientists up-to-the-minute details of air quality worldwide.

Intel also is developing devices that can tap into the energy in the environment around them, possibly using sunlight, television signals, cell phone towers and body heat. The amounts of energy captured would be small, with the devices acting as "scavengers," storing up that energy until they had enough to perform a specific task such as transmitting data.

For more on eco technology:
- see this San Francisco Chronicle article

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