A few weeks back Project Blackbox was doing roadshows and as part of
that it visited Atlanta as well. So, I went over and checked it out mostly 
'cause I was curious to see how it had been engineered. 

On the way out, I noticed this guy listening to music on his Powerbook 
and tinkering with a little gizmo almost a third of the size of a credit card.
Upon asking what it was, he said it was a Sun SPOT - a battery powered
device that he was using to gather environmental data on the Blackbox.
The device had been attached to the Blackbox and it was gathering data 
such as temperature and humidity. And, this dude was sucking data from 
it by connecting to it wirelessly from his Powerbook.

It turns out these devices on the Blackbox also serve as GPS tracking 
devices.

So, what are Sun SPOTs? Pictures can be found here but these are 
basically ARM powered devices that run Java and can be programmed 
in a variety of ways using the SDK that comes with the kit. More information
on the ways this toy can be used can be found here and here.

Pretty cool stuff!