"To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour," wrote Blake.

The prototypes of HP's wireless chips are somewhat larger than a grain of sand, 2-4mm square, and have capacities from 256kbps to 4Mbps. Future versions are expected to have greater capacities

The devices draw the electrical energy needed to communicate by induction from a special read write device and can transfer information to the device at a rate of 10Mbps, almost the speed of Wi-Fi and an order of magnitude faster than both Blue Tooth and RFID data transfer rates.

HP claims the new chip has "no equal in terms of its combination of size, memory capacity and data access speed" and it suggests that the tiny chip could be stuck on or embedded in almost any object and make available information and content now found mostly on electronic devices or the Internet.

HP suggest that potential applications could include storing medical records on a hospital patient's wristband; providing audio-visual supplements to postcards and photos; helping fight counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical industry; adding security to identity cards and passports; and supplying additional information for printed documents.

"We are actively exploring a range of exciting new applications for Memory Spot chips and believe the technology could have a significant impact on our consumer businesses, from printing to imaging, as well as providing solutions in a number of vertical markets," said Howard Taub, HP vice president and associate director, HP Labs.