Battery-operated devices such as fitness trackers consume a lot of power, so they can be constantly ready to receive input. Technology developed by Michele Magno, a researcher with the Department. of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), could change all that. “The trick lies in harvesting the necessary energy to receive a wake-up command directly from the transmitter through a touch,” Michele Magno comments in the press release from ETH. His zero-power receivers get the signals as an electromagnetic wave, which is captured on an electrode when it is touched by a human body. Before the actual command signal, the transmitter sends an electromagnetic wave lasting a few milliseconds that does not contain information as a “preamble”.
The energy absorbed by the receiver during that time is stored in a capacitor, which acts as a power source for receiving and decoding the actual control signal that follows. It can also be used to wake up other power-hungry devices in sleep mode.
“In this way, we have a true zero-power receiver that can be used in a multitude of ways,” Michele Magno explains in the press release. For example, “touch sensors on your car that recognize you and open the doors for you”. This technology could also be much safer than current radio-wave based technologies, which broadcast their signals over a distance and can therefore be hacked. With the help of the ETH Transfer office, the ambitious researcher plans to create start-up companies that will develop his prototype into commercial devices.
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