Sun today announced Project Sun SPOT (Small Programmable Object Technology), which encourages “pervasive” computing by providing a Java-based wireless sensor development kit that will be sold to educational and research institutions and hobbyists.

From the press release: “The Sun Labs Project Sun SPOT technology evaluation kit will include three Sun SPOTs: two stand-alone devices and one base station. All three Sun SPOTs include a processor board with 32-bit ARM9 CPU, 512 KB RAM and 4MB Flash memory, 2.4 GHz radio and USB interface. Each stand-alone Sun SPOT also includes a 3D accelerometer, temperature and light sensors, 8 tri-color light emitting diodes (LEDs), six analog inputs and 8 general purpose I/O ports for controlling relays, stepper motors and servos. The kit also includes a J2ME virtual machine, NetBeans(TM) 5.0 and a USB cable.”

The Sun SPOT technology evaluation kit is expected to be available in May at a price of $499.

More information is available at SunSPOTWorld.