Posted on 01/29/2018 6:49:03 PM PST by huldah1776
ENERGY HARVESTING Published 11 hours, 44 minutes ago Powering IoT Wireless Sensors and ICs without Batteries BRIDG, an industry-led public-private partnership for advanced technologies and manufacturing processes, announces a collaboration with Face® International Corporation in the development and integration of a patented energy-harvesting technology – the Evercell™ power cell – that is capable of powering wireless IoT sensors without batteries.
The Evercell technology employs a unique design and advanced materials to harvest thermal energy in any environment where the ambient temperature is above absolute zero – reliably generating the microwatts of electrical power needed to run wireless IoT sensors without the need for batteries.
Evercell power cells are inexpensive to produce, consume no fuel, have no moving parts, and contain no toxic materials.
According to company officials, an Evercell demonstration device has been operating continuously for 16 months with undiminished performance, producing enough electrical output to power a typical wireless sensor.
The breakthrough energy harvesting power cell was developed and patented by Face International Corporation, a technology company with more than 60 patents, to address a technology barrier that experts say has been the primary problem limiting the growth of the IoT – the dependence on billions of batteries to power the sensors critical to its operation
(Excerpt) Read more at powerpulse.net ...
Thermal energy? Where do you put it to get thermal energy?
Bkmk
Guessing a thermopile.
Many thermocouples wired together.
More guessing, they found a way to manufacture them on a thin wafer?
Next, the hackers will steal millions of microwatts and send all the ‘free’ electric to China.
“Thermal energy? Where do you put it to get thermal energy?”
Think of the warmest part of your body ...
My washer, dryer, dishwasher, furnace, air conditioner, sprinklers, and refrigerator don’t have an ethernet jack, or a wifi antenna, and are not connected to the “cloud”.
They don’t need to be.
These are appliances that have worked just fine for the last 900 years without being “connected”, and don’t need to be “connected”.
They’re over thinking it.
Over hyped, I was doing this 10 years ago. There’s energy everywhere, when you flip on a light switch your finger transfers energy to the switch lever. They’re just converting it like solar cells convert photons into electricity. Here’s a good explanation from the company that was doing this 10 years ago:
https://www.enocean.com/en/technology/energy-harvesting/
Consider that you can capture and store small amounts of energy for long periods of time (like charging a battery from wind or solar) to have enough to do something that takes a lot of energy for a short period of time (like sending a radio message).
Not good enough...I,want one that works below absolute zero.
There has to be a difference in temperature for this to work. Without some kind of heat flow no work from heat can be done.
Like powering an RFID chip in a head or hand...
“Can anyone explain this to me?”
The IoT is expected to connect pretty much everything in the next generation of Internet.
Imagine that things like salt and pepper shakers have sensors that tell a restaurant owner information like which ones need to be refilled, or which ones fell on the floor and might need to be run through the dishwasher.
You might ask what most people ask: Why would anyone need such a thing?
The reason for doing this is quite simple: Because we can.
I’m not saying that it is good. I’m saying it is inevitable. Unless, somehow our culture takes a sudden shift toward a more Amish-like or luddite view of tech, this will happen.
What is making this possible is the continual decrease in size and cost of microchip technology. When it costs less than a cent to connect things, then the cost becomes negligible and innovation develops around gathering and processing the data from IoT devices.
But these micro- and even nano- (in some cases) technologies require some source of power. The amount of power may be small and even diminishing, but they generally require a power source. And no one is going to use IoT salt and pepper shakers that require plugging in to recharge.
Thus, battery-free power sources have great value for the IoT trend.
The Evercell technology employs a unique design and advanced materials to harvest thermal energy in any environment where the ambient temperature is above absolute zero
...
This could solve Global Warming.
What is a loT sensor? Tried a search for it and got parking lot technology.
New connected appliances breakdown far more often than the old nonconnected ones. Generating more revenue for the manufacturer.
Or is 10-10 listening in on to people at that table. Or acting like a demented 'Red Dwarf' toaster.
Wow! And I thought I was doing good with my fridge that is just a baby at 40 years old!
These devices contain a loop antenna that gathers radio frequency energy without tuning to a specific frequency. That antenna is connected to a bridge rectifier that exhibits an extremely low forward voltage drop. The resulting DC current can be used to power a device directly or operate a charge pump to raise the voltage. That can be applied to a battery charger or capacitor for energy storage.
Like I said, I’m not advocating for a ubiquitous IoT. Just saying it is inevitable.
All technology is abused because mankind is fallen. Powerful technologies are more frightening because they enable sinful people to do greater acts of evil.
The evil of mankind can not be fixed with science or technology.
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