The passive WiFi use less power

In the era of internet, WiFi is everywhere, providing remote wireless access to the Internet, and save us tripping over the cables. However, WiFi consumes a lot of energy, and the battery drain connected devices very quickly. Fortunately, engineers from the University of Washington (UW) is ready to save! They discovered a technique that enables WiFi uses 10,000 times less energy than normal.

The latest passive WiFi is also consumes 1,000 times less power, compared to Bluetooth. In fact, compared with conventional methods, this new technology uses almost none of power at all. Although currently only able to transmit data at rates of up to 11 Mbps (megabits per second), far lower than the peak of WiFi speed, which is the data transfer rate is 11 times higher than Bluetooth.

Passive WiFi bringing low power to WiFi transmissions. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1Xhy3l)

This discovery proves the concept of research that was built with a technique called backscattering WiFi, where the signals sent between a Wi-Fi router and a wireless receiver device manipulated. A previous study by UW showed that low power equipment can be used to reflect and "distort" this signal. Devices that are connected to receive a new distortion as unique data.

The passive WiFi is an evolution of the technique. First, connect to the Internet made only one, which is installed in the router, which is out of traditional Wi-Fi signal. Wi-Fi Sensor Passive reflect and absorb the signal, creating multiple streams of data that can be "bounced" against some of the receiving device.

"Our sensors can communicate with each router, smartphone, tablet or other electronic devices with WiFi chipsets," said Bryce Kellogg, a doctoral candidate student in electrical engineering at UW and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

"Cool part is that all of these devices can decode WiFi package that we made use of reflection, so you do not need any special equipment," said Kellogg. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | WASHINGTON EDU | ENGINEERING.COM]

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