HP's "memory spot" chip

HP has just unveiled a tiny microchip that will let you store massive amounts of data anywhere you want to stick it --- and which can then wirelessly transmit that data any way you want to.

The "memory spot," as Hewlett-Packard's research laboratory is calling it, is probably about two to five years from being sold on the market.

You'd be able to put it on a photo to carry a voice recording, stick it on passports so officials can examine images of travelers' fingerprints and iris patterns or add it to soldiers' dog tags so doctors can view their full medical records.

This will blow away the capabilities currently offered by RFID. But HP isn't even sure it is going to run with the program. More here in from Mercury News colleague Nicole Wong.