The Internet of Things promises to connect billions of otherwise ordinary devices to the internet, but when each one needs to have its own battery, there’s a limit to how small or cheap they can become. A new paper-thin Bluetooth chip that’s able to operate entirely without a battery could be about to solve this problem. The postage stamp-sized chip from Wiliot is able to harvest energy from the ambient radio frequencies around us, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular signals, and use them to power a Bluetooth-equipped ARM processor that can be connected to a variety of sensors.
Wiliot says that the size of the Bluetooth chip, combined with the lack of any battery, means it can be produced cheaply and mounted on almost anything. The company gives several potential use cases for the technology. For example, it could be embedded in consumer products to provide easy access to a digital manual when the original paper version is long lost, or it could be put on a clothing label and used to communicate the optimal settings to a washing machine.
However, the fact that it can also be combined with sensors raises more interesting possibilities. In addition to tracking items through a supply chain, a temperature sensor could also report when items get either too hot or too cold. Elsewhere, a pressure sensor could detect when a food container is empty and automatically order a replacement, thereby making so-called smart fridges truly smart.
Although a recent $30 million financing round means that Wiliot now counts on both Amazon and Samsung as investors, it will still be another year before its sensor tags are widely available. Wiliot says that it hopes to offer them as part of a limited release in 2019 before making then widely available in 2020.
Comments
This is very cool.
By Dr Strange on 01.15.19 11:23am
So for cities only.
By pj_camp on 01.15.19 1:08pm
Great for spy equipment
By XavierMidnight on 01.15.19 1:53pm
I’m so hyped for this! ❤❤❤
By Nefrarya on 01.15.19 3:04pm
The end of privacy.
By ἐλευθερία on 01.15.19 3:57pm
I have always loved the idea of pulling power from radio waves since doing it with electronics kits as a child. Although you can only pull tiny amounts of power we are now getting to the point where it can be useful. Batteries in low power devices really need to go for the sensor market to take off.
By Pete2 on 01.15.19 6:28pm
I feel like this probably isn’t reliable for things using sensors like weight, and temp. Where this is reliable, the benefits over QR codes are probably pretty slim.
By Milan07 on 01.15.19 7:28pm
whoa this thread got cleaned up. but they still haven’t corrected the title to be decent… figure you’d go delete bunch of threads, at least you’d have the decency to clean that technically incorrect and sensational title, or i’ll write it again, clickbate.
if you have spare time, maybe y’all should clean up that qualcomm v apple article comment section w all these morons
By blahness on 01.15.19 7:55pm
I really wish you would drop this.
By Nefrarya on 01.16.19 7:25am
why? would you rather have someone jump on tweeter and go on a tirade to the author instead?
I don’t believe my comments were in violation of verge guideline and I don’t see anything wrong with making a point about media exaggeration/hype/sensationalizing to get clicks. after all, if they don’t want comments, they could have turned off the entire thing (it gets them more clicks, so they probably won’t, unlike Vox).
I’ve gotten this news a day before this article published and title caught my eyes. for a very short moment, it lead me to speculate maybe there was rivaling tech using miniaturized metal – air battery tech of some sort.
By blahness on 01.16.19 10:46am
The first few use cases described at the beginning are things that paper RFID tags have been doing for years now since you don’t need the tage to submit the information of the current status of the object, you only need to send a unique ID that the tool reading it will use to look at information in its database and chose the right option.
The real breakthrought is the fact that you can put sensors and send actual data. Don’t know about consummer world, but in the industrial and agricultural world this could be a real life-changer.
By Kensay_ on 01.16.19 8:21am