In the future, you will be able to use sensors that will be part of the "Internet of Things" system without having to worry about energy
![The new credit card-sized devices (for prototypes) can interact with each other and alert their users without the use of batteries. They pass information between them by deflecting or swallowing radio signals that already exist in the air around them. [Courtesy of University of Washington]](https://www.hayadan.org.il/images/content3/2013/08/abc_2.jpg "The new credit card-sized devices (for prototypes) can interact with each other and alert their users without the use of batteries. They pass information between them by deflecting or swallowing radio signals that already exist in the air around them. [Courtesy of University of Washington]")
Engineers from the University of Washington have succeeded in developing a new wireless communication system that allows devices to communicate with each other without relying on batteries or a power source.
The modern communication method, which the researchers call "ambient backscatter", takes advantage of the television transmitters and mobile phones that already exist and surround us everywhere. Two devices communicate with each other through the return of signals to share information between them. The researchers were able to build small devices, without batteries, and with antennas capable of locating, utilizing and returning television signals, which other similar devices can also use. The technology could enable the development of a network of devices and sensors that could operate without an energy source and without the need for human supervision within what is called the "Internet of Things".
"We can repurpose the wireless signals already in our environment to convert them into both an energy source and a means of communication," said lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, a professor of engineering and computer science at the University of Washington. "We hope that our new system will have applications in several fields, including wearable computing, "smart" homes and self-sustaining sensor networks."
"Our devices create a network based on the signals moving in the air outside," says one of the other researchers. "You can slightly deflect these signals and create a sort of Morse code of communication between battery-free devices."
It will be possible to build and place smart sensors inside any type of building, and then connect them together in a communication network. For example, sensors placed inside bridges will be able to monitor the quality of the concrete and steel, and at the appropriate moment send an alert when one of the sensors detects a slight crack in the bridges. It will be possible to use this technology to establish a communication network of text messages and emails through wearable devices, without the need to use batteries.
The researchers tested their new method using prototype devices the size of a credit card placed several meters apart. For each of the devices, the researchers built antennas connected to a standard control panel that emits light when a communication signal is received from another device. Groups of these devices were tested in a variety of environments in the Seattle area, including inside residential buildings, on street corners and on the upper level of a parking garage. These environments were distant from a television signal transmission tower between 800 meters and 10 km. In these experiments, the researchers found that the devices were indeed able to communicate with each other, even those that were farthest from the transmission tower. The devices were able to receive the signals at a rate of 1 kilobyte per second when they were placed at a distance of 75 cm from each other outside buildings, and at a distance of 45 cm inside buildings. These results are sufficient for transmitting information such as reading sensors and text messages.
The new system can also be easily used for devices that use batteries, such as smart mobile phones. They can be adjusted so that when the batteries die, the phone can still send text messages while harnessing energy from the surrounding TV signals. The researchers say their method has countless possible applications, and they plan to increase the effective range of this communication network.
5 תגובות
Doron, the source of energy is not in the sun but in the communication in the air.
As promising as the idea sounds, it is no more efficient than a small photovoltaic cell in an electrical appliance.
For quite some time now, as far as I know, you can find calculators that contain a small photovoltaic cell that supplies them with energy.
From time to time, and quite rarely, I happen something after which I say wow....
In this case, the amount of applications that can be imagined is enormous. If such an idea becomes commercial, the entire human environment
The equipment he uses, the buildings, and maybe even the trees that will inform the electric cable that they are going to touch it -
Everything will be connected, everything will change forever.
The big brother kept his eye open. Such an accessory will be integrated into all kinds of devices, and the user won't even know. There is no battery and there is no off button.
The effective range in centimeters is about nanowatts so even if they use it to charge a battery it will take hundreds of years to charge
But here is the time to present my patent, simply use a photoelectric cell to charge a battery, even room light will give a thousand times more energy