Researchers create battery-free wireless communication 'out of thin air'

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Engineers have created a battery-free communication technique that repurposes wireless signals that already surround us. This new wireless communication system seems like "magic," since it "provides connectivity between computers out of what is essentially thin air." It takes us a step closer to an Internet of Things reality as it lets devices talk to each other without relying on batteries or wires for power. Instead, it taps into already existing ambient Wi-Fi, TV or cellular signals to exchange information.



University of Washington researchers call it "ambient backscatter;" it's so revolutionary that when engineers presented their work [pdf] at the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communication 2013 conference in Hong Kong, they won the "best paper" award.

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