Ambient
Backscatter
Engineers
at the University of Washington have
been working on a new wireless communication system that allows devices to
operate without using battery power or wires.
The new technology is called the “ambient backscatter.”
Shyam Gollakato, the assistant professor of ocmputer science
and engineering at UW, siad “We can repurpose wireless signals that are already
around us into both a source of power and a communication medium. Its hopefully going to have applications in a
number of areas including wearable computing, smart homes and self-sustaining
sensor networks.”
The ambient backscatter operates off of the TV and cellular transmissions that make us so much of our surroundings. This is possible by one device reflecting the existing signals to exchange information with another device. Engineers have made prototypes that are battery-free and have antennas which can detect, harness, and reflect a TV signal.
The ambient backscatter operates off of the TV and cellular transmissions that make us so much of our surroundings. This is possible by one device reflecting the existing signals to exchange information with another device. Engineers have made prototypes that are battery-free and have antennas which can detect, harness, and reflect a TV signal.
This idea has been published at the Association for Computing
Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Data Communication 2013 Conference in
Hong Kong. The best-paper award was
given for the project.
Potentially, these smart sensors can be permanently built inside just
about any structure. Once built in, they
can structures can communicate with other structures. For instance, if you left your keys on the
couch your couch can send you a signal telling you where your keys are.
The engineers started their research with a prototype devices placed with in several feet of each other. Antennas were build on circuit boards with flasing LED lights to notify a message has been received from the other device. These prototypes were tested throughout the Seattle area. Distance between devices and TV Towers ranged from less than .5 a mile away to about 6.5 miles away.
Research has also been done on implementing this new
technology into smart phones that already operate on battery. It acts as an emergy back up for when the
phone battery dies. The phone would
still be able to send text messages by using ambient TV signals.
I think this new technology has the potential of changing the
way the phone, tablet, ipod, laptop industries work. Actually, it has the potential of changing
far more industries that the ones I listed.
I am fascinated by the idea of devices that do not need the
constant need for battery life. We would
save money on not having to constantly replace batteries. We could feel a security of always being
connected in times of emergencies. That
doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.
However, if this new technology were really to take off would
it hurt the battery industry? Are there
negative things that can happen from being battery-free? How many devices would this new technology be
implemented into? With mass amounts of
people using the TV towers at once will it compromise the the Tower’s
efficiency?
I do not know the answers to these questions but they are
things that made me curious as we go into the future with communication and new
technology.
Wow, I would have never thought that this could be an option!! What an incredible feature! With as much as society has grown to heavily rely on our phones, it would be such a huge comfort to know that emergency text messages after your cell phone battery is dead could be sent. It makes me wonder if ever technology will evolve to where charging cell phones becomes a thing of the past?
ReplyDeleteOkay, I would really be a fan of this. My fire alarm batteries started beeping this morning (because they are dying). I would have loved to have this technology then!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of being able to have your phone tell where your keys are was also very appealing.
Have you heard anything about any possible health implications? I would just worry that it might promote cancer or something of that nature. If there are no restrictions because of health, I can not think of a reason that this technology should not be widely adopted.
You mentioned that it may hurt the battery industry, but I think the industry is already headed south. The only things that I buy batteries for are flashlight and controllers to my Wii. In both cases I have re-charging batteries, so I very rarely have the need to go shopping for more. Though we are constantly having to charge our phones and ipods, those batteries are built in and do not require the battery to be replaced. For this reason, I think the battery market may remain much the same.
Great article! You always have such thorough, well constructed writing.
This technology sounds great! It makes sense to use the signals and energy that are already around us. I wonder about how the technology actually works. Does it have to be connected to a network, or tuned into a certain signal? If everyone started to use this, would it make it so it would not function?
ReplyDeleteI think the day will come when wires and charging are a thing of the past. Whether it is kinetic energy, or harnessing the signals that are being broadcast around us constantly the technology will evolve to the point where devices will be self-powered. It will be amazing to see where this technology takes us.