Making Homes Smart Could Become Easier
February 8, 2019 | University of WaterlooEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Making your house “smart” could soon become cheaper and easier, thanks to new technology developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo.
Their recent study describes an approach that can be used to deploy, for the first time, battery-free sensors into a home using existing WiFi networks. Previous attempts to use battery-free sensors ran into some obstacles making the efforts impractical. These hurdles include the need to modify existing WiFi access points, challenges with security protocols, and the need to use energy-hungry components.
“If you look at the current sensor products, they need batteries, which nobody likes to have to change, but they will work with commodity WiFi,” explained Omid Abari, an Assistant Professor in Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “There has been recent research which proposes approaches that don’t need batteries. But while they’re addressing the battery problem, they’re adding another issue; it doesn’t work with commodity WiFi devices.”
“So, our approach combines the best of these two worlds—it is battery-free, and it works with commodity WiFi devices.”
The new communication mechanism outlined in the study, called WiTAG, could, therefore, revolutionize the smart home industry as the Waterloo researchers have shown, for the first time, that battery-free sensors can be used with common WiFi access points.
WiTAG will enable the use of regular WiFi devices for reading data from smart devices, unlike existing products that use power-hungry WiFi transmitters to send their data and therefore require the use of batteries.
WiTAG uses radio frequency (RF) signals as a power source and makes use of existing WiFi infrastructures to read data from sensors without requiring the sensors to be connected to the WiFi network which makes them much easier to deploy. This allows smart home technologies such as temperature sensors, light sensors and potentially wearable devices, such as, Fitbits and those that monitor heart rate and glucose levels to use the WiTAG system.
“One of the biggest breakthroughs is the fact that our technique works with encryption enabled,” said Tim Brecht, an Associate Professor in Waterloo's Cheriton School of Computer Science. “The prior proposed techniques for battery-free communication do not work with encrypted WiFi networks, meaning that your WiFi network could not use a password; which no one wants.”
The researchers, who have filed a provisional patent, implemented WiTAG and created the first prototype, are now working on a second prototype. They are also developing an app that will work with the system and have plans to support a wide variety of applications.
“By having the application running on a phone without any other modification either to the phone or to the access point we can read sensor data,” said Ali Abedi, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science. “Data can be read from things such as temperature sensors or anything you see in smart homes.”
A paper describing the system, titled WiTAG: Rethinking Backscatter Communication for WiFi Networks, which was co-authored by Abari, Brecht, Abedi and Mohammad Hossein Mazaheri, a Research Assistant at Waterloo recently appeared in the Proceedings of the 17th ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Networks.
Suggested Items
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
04/19/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineFor my must-read picks of the week, I’m highlighting Parker Capers, a young professional seeking employment, solid counsel from Dan Beaulieu on what your post-show plan should look like, more information and insight on “chiplets” and the need for secure data transfer standards from columnist Preeya Kuray, as well as Matt Stevenson’s design for reality wisdom. It’s a reminder to download one of our newest books (there are several) you don't want to miss if you are an assembler.
D Coupon Testing and Data Insights With GreenSource Fabrication
04/17/2024 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineMarcy LaRont spoke with Steve Karas of GreenSource Fabrication at the SMTA UHDI conference in March. He presented a case study that GreenSource undertook with a customer on critical via reliability with advanced materials and used the experience to highlight the importance and effectiveness of D coupon testing. He also discussed GreenSource’s approach to data aggregation and a new system they developed to use collected data effectively.
Real Time with... IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Innovations in Thermal, Warpage, and Strain Metrology
04/17/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOEditor Nolan Johnson talks with Neil Hubble, president of Akrometrix, about the company's leadership in thermal, warpage, and strain metrology. Neil details how Akrometrix is committed to addressing customer challenges through technological evolution, innovative solutions, and a focus on data processing. A tabletop unit for thermal warpage testing is showcased at IPC APEX EXPO this year.
Signal Integrity Expert Donald Telian to Teach 'Signal Integrity, In Practice' Masterclass Globally
04/17/2024 | PRLOGDonald Telian and The EEcosystem announce the global tour of "Signal Integrity, In Practice," a groundbreaking LIVE masterclass designed to equip hardware engineers with essential skills for solving Signal Integrity (SI) challenges in today's fast-paced technological landscape.
SMT Prospects and Perspectives: AI Opportunities, Challenges, and Possibilities, Part 1
04/17/2024 | Dr. Jennie Hwang -- Column: SMT Perspectives and ProspectsIn this installment of my artificial intelligence (AI) series, I will touch on the key foundational technologies that propel and drive the development and deployment of AI, with special consideration of electronics packaging and assembly.