Memory Spot will be submitted to an industry standards body for its consideration. Taub would not identify the name of the organization but said an announcement would be made shortly.

Although it is too early to determine precise pricing, HP hopes that Memory Spot chips will be sold for about ten cents each or for tens of cents. Or, a strip of 20 chips may theoretically be priced at US$20.

Memory Spot is similar to RFID but is different, also. While both involve embedding of small chips on various objects and require readers, Memory Spot is not geared toward inventory applications like RFID and it has an integrated antenna. Memory Spot also does not require a separate database to find information. "It's all stored on the Memory Spot," Taub said.

"With RFID, you get a small number of bits and generally, you have to go somewhere else to look up the information," Taub said.