HP has introduced a prototype of the new Memory Spot chip, bringing us one step closer to the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things is the vision of a future world where each item or thing is networked, and can communicate information about itself or from itself to other objects and to computer systems. According to a report in InformationWeek,

"Memory Spot is similar to a radio frequency identification chip, whose uses include tracking goods in the supply chain. The big difference is that RFID chips store a pointer or reference to a database entry, while Memory Spot stores the data itself. HP's chip has 4 Mbits of memory, despite being about the size of the tip of a pencil. That opens a range of uses, from sticking the digital version of a document or photo to a printout for easy copying to storing medical records on a patient's hospital ID bracelet.

HP is pitching Memory Spot as a commodity wireless data node that will be easy and cheap enough--at $1 a chip, it hopes--that businesses and consumers alike will dream up their own brilliant uses."

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to Memory Spot is HP's attitude on how it will be used. According to the same article in InformationWeek, "HP ... [is] banking on tech-savvy people finding unimagined uses, as they have for Web technology and GPS devices." Mash-ups, anyone?