Communications of the ACM
Wireless Devices Go Battery-Free With New Communication Technique
Using ambient backscatter, devices like this can interact with users and communicate without using batteries; they exchange information by reflecting or absorbing pre-existing radio signals.
Credit: University of Washington
University of Washington engineers have developed a wireless communication method called ambient backscatter that enables devices to interact without batteries or wires, in a development that could advance the Internet of things.
The system enables devices to exchange information using existing TV and cellular transmissions.
The team developed a small, battery-free device with an antenna that picks up and reflects a TV signal, which then is picked up by other similar devices.
"We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium," says lead researcher Shyam Gollakota. "It's hopefully going to have applications in a number of areas, including wearable computing, smart homes, and self-sustaining sensor networks."
The team won the best-paper award for their work at the ACM SIGCOMM 2013 conference, which began Aug. 12 in Hong Kong. "Our devices form a network out of thin air," says paper co-author Joshua Smith. "You can reflect these signals slightly to create a Morse code of communication between battery-free devices."
The researchers note that the system will enable smart sensors to be located inside nearly any structure and to communicate with one another.
From UW News (WA)
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