(Press-News.org) We might be one step closer to an Internet-of-things reality.
University of Washington engineers have created a new wireless communication system that allows devices to interact with each other without relying on batteries or wires for power.
The new communication technique, which the researchers call "ambient backscatter," takes advantage of the TV and cellular transmissions that already surround us around the clock. Two devices communicate with each other by reflecting the existing signals to exchange information. The researchers built small, battery-free devices with antennas that can detect, harness and reflect a TV signal, which then is picked up by other similar devices.
The technology could enable a network of devices and sensors to communicate with no power source or human attention needed.
"We can repurpose wireless signals that are already around us into both a source of power and a communication medium," said lead researcher Shyam Gollakota, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering. "It's hopefully going to have applications in a number of areas including wearable computing, smart homes and self-sustaining sensor networks."
The researchers published their results at the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communication 2013 conference in Hong Kong, which begins Aug. 13. They have received the conference's best-paper award for their research.
"Our devices form a network out of thin air," said co-author Joshua Smith, a UW associate professor of computer science and engineering and of electrical engineering. "You can reflect these signals slightly to create a Morse code of communication between battery-free devices."
Smart sensors could be built and placed permanently inside nearly any structure, then set to communicate with each other. For example, sensors placed in a bridge could monitor the health of the concrete and steel, then send an alert if one of the sensors picks up a hairline crack. The technology can also be used for communication – text messages and emails, for example – in wearable devices, without requiring battery consumption.
The researchers tested the ambient backscatter technique with credit card-sized prototype devices placed within several feet of each other. For each device the researchers built antennas into ordinary circuit boards that flash an LED light when receiving a communication signal from another device.
Groups of the devices were tested in a variety of settings in the Seattle area, including inside an apartment building, on a street corner and on the top level of a parking garage. These locations ranged from less than half a mile away from a TV tower to about 6.5 miles away.
They found that the devices were able to communicate with each other, even the ones farthest from a TV tower. The receiving devices picked up a signal from their transmitting counterparts at a rate of 1 kilobit per second when up to 2.5 feet apart outdoors and 1.5 feet apart indoors. This is enough to send information such as a sensor reading, text messages and contact information.
It's also feasible to build this technology into devices that do rely on batteries, such as smartphones. It could be configured so that when the battery dies, the phone could still send text messages by leveraging power from an ambient TV signal.
The applications are endless, the researchers say, and they plan to continue advancing the capacity and range of the ambient backscatter communication network.
INFORMATION:
The other researchers involved are David Wetherall, a UW professor of computer science and engineering, Vincent Liu, a doctoral student in computer science and engineering, and Aaron Parks and Vamsi Talla, both doctoral students in electrical engineering.
The research was funded by the University of Washington through a Google Faculty Research Award and by the National Science Foundation's Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering at the UW.
For more information, contact Gollakota and Smith at abc@cs.washington.edu or 206-685-2094.
Ambient backscatter website: http://abc.cs.washington.edu/
YouTube video: http://youtu.be/gX9cbxLSOkE
Related paper: http://abc.cs.washington.edu/files/comm153-liu.pdf
Shyam Gollakota faculty page: http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~gshyam/
Joshua Smith faculty page: http://sensor.cs.washington.edu/jrs.html
Videos and images available at: http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/08/13/wireless-devices-go-battery-free-with-new-communication-technique/
Wireless devices go battery-free with new communication technique
2013-08-13
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Do conservation scientists work too hard?
2013-08-13
An international study of the work habits of conservation biologists suggests that they do work very hard — producing a substantial amount of work late at night and over weekends. The results have been published in an editorial article for the scientific journal Biological Conservation.
The research, by Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz of The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC), Dr Richard Primack of Boston University and Dr Lian Pin Koh of Princeton University, put to the test the commonly held belief that scientists are like laboratory rats, working long hours at ...
Urgent! How genes tell cellular construction crews, 'Read me now!'
2013-08-13
KANSAS CITY, MO — When egg and sperm combine, the new embryo bustles with activity. Its cells multiply so rapidly they largely ignore their DNA, other than to copy it and to read just a few essential genes. The embryonic cells mainly rely on molecular instructions placed in the egg by its mother in the form of RNA.
The cells translate these RNA molecules into proteins that manage almost everything in the first minutes or hours of the embryo's life. Then, during the so-called midblastula transition, cells start transcribing massive amounts of their own DNA. How embryonic ...
NASA identifies heavy rainfall in South China Sea's Typhoon Utor
2013-08-13
As Typhoon Utor was exiting the northwestern Philippines, NASA's TRMM satellite passed overhead and detected some heavy rainfall in Utor's thunderstorm "feeder-bands" as it re-strengthened over the South China Sea.
NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite passed over Utor on August 12, 2013 at 0621 UTC/2:21 a.m. EDT as it was exiting the Philippines into the South China Sea.
To form a complete picture of rainfall and cloud extent of Utor, TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data were added into a combination Infrared/Visible ...
First direct evidence of HPV-related tonsillar cancer on the rise in Canada
2013-08-13
LONDON, ON – American and European research shows an alarming increase in the rate of tonsillar cancer related to the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus. Experts suggest a similar trend has emerged in Canada, but it had yet to be confirmed through scientific analysis. In a new study published in Current Oncology, a group of researchers from Lawson Health Research Institute and Western University have produced evidence confirming this epidemic.
Orophararyngeal cancer impacts part of the throat, including the tonsils and the base of the tongue. Historically, ...
Your eyes may hold clues to stroke risk
2013-08-13
Your eyes may be a window to your stroke risk.
In a study reported in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, researchers said retinal imaging may someday help assess if you're more likely to develop a stroke — the nation's No. 4 killer and a leading cause of disability.
"The retina provides information on the status of blood vessels in the brain," said Mohammad Kamran Ikram, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Singapore Eye Research Institute, the Department of Ophthalmology and Memory Aging & Cognition Centre, at the National ...
Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe
2013-08-13
Two research teams from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands have jointly reported the discovery of Neandertal bone tools coming from their excavations at two neighboring Paleolithic sites in southwest France. The tools are unlike any others previously found in Neandertal sites, but they are similar to a tool type well known from later modern human sites and still in use today by high-end leather workers. This tool, called a lissoir or smoother, is shaped from deer ribs and has a polished ...
Inducing and augmenting labor may be associated with increased risk of autism
2013-08-13
DURHAM, N.C. -- Pregnant women whose labors are induced or augmented may have an increased risk of bearing children with autism, especially if the baby is male, according to a large, retrospective analysis by researchers at Duke Medicine and the University of Michigan.
The findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics on Aug. 12, 2013, do not prove cause and effect, but suggest the need for more research, particularly as labor induction and augmentation have been used more frequently in recent years.
Expediting deliveries has benefitted women with health conditions that pose ...
Oprah's and Einstein's faces help spot dementia
2013-08-13
CHICAGO --- Simple tests that measure the ability to recognize and name famous people such as Albert Einstein, Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey may help doctors identify early dementia in those 40 to 65 years of age, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.
The research appears in the August 13, 2013, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"These tests also differentiate between recognizing a face and actually naming it, which can help identify the specific type of cognitive impairment a person has," said study lead ...
ADHD and texting found to significantly impair teenage driving
2013-08-13
ADHD and texting both significantly impair driving performance among teenagers, according to a study published online today in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center used a driving simulator to test the driving performance of 16- and 17-year-old drivers; approximately half of the study's 61 participants had been diagnosed with ADHD, the other half had not. During the 40-minute driving simulation, researchers measured the speed and lane position of the young drivers as they texted and talked on the phone.
Texting significantly ...
Breastfeeding associated with decreased risk of overweight among children in Japan
2013-08-13
Breastfeeding appears to be associated with decreased risk of overweight and obesity among school children in Japan, according to a study by Michiyo Yamakawa, M.H.Sc., of the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama City, Japan, and colleagues.
A total of 43,367 singleton Japanese children who were born after 37 gestational weeks and had information about their feeding during infancy from Japan's Longitudinal Survey of Babies in the 21st Century, were included in the study. Researchers measured for underweight, ...