Phased array of BlueTooth chips

The thought of a system of distributed recievers has popped up a couple of times lately (e.g. the Lofar project). With the kind of attention it gets it should not be long before we see a leap in deep space observation technology.

While some are thinking in terms of Overwhelmingly Large Telescopes (OWL) some are more modest in terms of spending.

...each antenna would operate at only 10 milliwatts, an array of 500,000 tiles would have twice the power of the transmitter at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Because they could be mass-produced with existing equipment, the tiles would cost only about $20 each, or $10 million for a 500,000-tile grid. [Via. New Scientist]

The next step is to distribute antennas world wide to enthusiasts and let a commununity of internet users process the gathered data in a seti-like manner.