Like our mobiles, the so-called Internet of Things has an Achilles heel: the battery. The idea is to “upholster” buildings, appliances, clothes and all kinds of objects with tiny sensors so that they obtain useful information from their surroundings and are constantly connected to the Internet, something only possible if these micro-devices are wireless and there is no need to charge or charge. replace your batteries periodically .
From the Eindhoven University of Technology comes a possible solution to the problem. It is a temperature sensor measuring two square millimeters and weighing 1.6 milligrams – like a grain of sand – invented by researcher Hao Gao.
Apart from its tiny dimensions, the novelty of this device is that it feeds on the radio waves sent by the router to which it is connected. More advantages: both the aforementioned router and the sensor consume very little power, and the latter is incredibly cheap to build ; It comes out to about 20 euro cents a piece.
Once charged, the microdevice measures the temperature of its environment and sends a signal of a specific frequency to the router. At the moment, it has a range of only 2.5 centimeters , but the researchers hope to increase its range to 1 meter in a year and reach 5 meters soon.
In the future it will also be possible to build sensors of this type that record movement, light or humidity, for example. Another of its important characteristics is that they work even if they are covered with paint, plaster and cement , which would allow them to be placed on the walls of buildings in the construction process.
The possible applications are immense: turn on the lights or the heating when they register that it is necessary, notify immediately if they detect a water leak, and so on.
Image: Bart van Overbeeke
