Communication devices without power supplies

The use of radio wave energy was difficult due to their too fast dissipation. However, engineers from the University of Washington have created a technology through which communication devices can be powered from signals that already exist on air, in particular, television. The system is called Ambient Backscatter. Developed low-power devices can also communicate with each other using other people's radio waves.


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Developed Ambient Backscatter devices, the size of a credit card, are a printed circuit board with an antenna. Communication was successfully maintained even at a distance of more than 10 km from the signal source - the television tower. For information exchange, reflection from already existing signals is used. Capacity is still small - about 1 kbit / s, provided that the devices are in close proximity to each other (up to 75 cm).

Obviously, the technology has great potential: Ambient Backscatter devices can be used as sensors and sensors that do not need additional power sources, which means they can be placed anywhere and in any quantities, having built a whole network.

The project is funded by Google (Google Faculty Research Award) and the Research Center of the National Science Foundation (National Science Foundation's Research Center). The principles of operation of devices are well demonstrated in the video of the creators:



More information about the project can be found at the University of Washington .