Our world’s getting more high-tech. Yes, that’s great news, but as you don’t realize, our world’s getting more and more dangerous too. Here’s the world’s smallest gyroscope, powred by lasers and as small as a single grain of sand. It’ll sound very safe and going the road of commercial if it’s announced by Steve Jobs for the next iPhone 5, but it’s not. It’s invented by the Israeli Department of Defence, thus making it sound so dangerous. From what they say, the new gyros are sensitive enough to track your position and movements anywhere—no GPS required. Convincing enough?

The underlying tech is the same that’s found in aircraft and seafaring ships—minute physical changes are compared to each other, calculating a new position without the need for an external reference point. Essentially, the object (be it an aircraft carrier or something smaller) can detect itself moving. But for a gyro to be this tiny changes everything. Think of a smartphone that could pinpoint your movements in a cave—or, probably more realistically (and practically), a museum, or new apartment building. Sadly, we’ll still need GPS a little bit, as the gyroscopes need to be told exactly where they are from above before their own internal detection can kick in. But this breakthrough will mean GPS access could someday be of minimal importance—which is great news (especially for any city dweller, who knows lining up a signal can be a pain at best). Just get one little satellite zap, and the micro-gyros will take it from there, anywhere in the world. Ion cannon ready!

SOURCE via Pop Sci