Here Comes the Internet of Plastic Things, No Batteries Or Electronics Required 14
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: When technologists talk about the "Internet of Things" (IoT), they often gloss over the fact that all these interconnected things need batteries and electronics to carry out the job of collecting and processing data while they're communicating to one another. This job is made even more challenging when you consider that many of the objects we would like to connect are made from plastic and do not have electronics embedded into them. Now researchers at the University of Washington have devised a way of using 3D printed plastic to create objects that communicate with smartphone or other Wi-Fi devices without the need for batteries or electronics.
This research builds on previous work at the University of Washington dating back to 2014 in which another research team employed battery-less chips that transmit their bits by either reflecting or not reflecting a Wi-Fi router's signals. With this kind of backscattering, a device communicates by modulating its reflection of the Wi-Fi signal in the space. [...] In this latest research, the University of Washington team has been able to leverage this Wi-Fi backscatter technology to 3D geometry and create easy to print wireless devices using commodity 3D printers. To achieve this, the researchers have built non-electronic and printable analogues for each of these electronic components using plastic filaments and integrated them into a single computational design. The researchers are making their CAD models available to 3D printing enthusiasts so that they can create their own IoT objects. The designs include a battery-free slider that controls music volume, a button that automatically orders more cornflakes from an e-commerce website and a water sensor that sends an alarm to your phone when it detects a leak. The researchers "have leveraged mechanical motion to provide the power for their objects," reports Spectrum. "To ensure that the plastic objects can reflect Wi-Fi signals, the researchers employ composite plastic filament materials with conductive properties. These take the form of plastic with copper and graphene filings."
"Once the reflective material was created, the next challenge for the researchers was to communicate the collected data. The researchers ingeniously translated the 0 and 1 bits of traditional electronics by encoding these bits as 3D printed plastic gears. A 0 and 1 bit are encoded with the presence and absence of tooth on the gear, respectively. These gears reflect the WiFi signal differently depending on whether they are transmitting a 1 bit or a 0 bit."
This research builds on previous work at the University of Washington dating back to 2014 in which another research team employed battery-less chips that transmit their bits by either reflecting or not reflecting a Wi-Fi router's signals. With this kind of backscattering, a device communicates by modulating its reflection of the Wi-Fi signal in the space. [...] In this latest research, the University of Washington team has been able to leverage this Wi-Fi backscatter technology to 3D geometry and create easy to print wireless devices using commodity 3D printers. To achieve this, the researchers have built non-electronic and printable analogues for each of these electronic components using plastic filaments and integrated them into a single computational design. The researchers are making their CAD models available to 3D printing enthusiasts so that they can create their own IoT objects. The designs include a battery-free slider that controls music volume, a button that automatically orders more cornflakes from an e-commerce website and a water sensor that sends an alarm to your phone when it detects a leak. The researchers "have leveraged mechanical motion to provide the power for their objects," reports Spectrum. "To ensure that the plastic objects can reflect Wi-Fi signals, the researchers employ composite plastic filament materials with conductive properties. These take the form of plastic with copper and graphene filings."
"Once the reflective material was created, the next challenge for the researchers was to communicate the collected data. The researchers ingeniously translated the 0 and 1 bits of traditional electronics by encoding these bits as 3D printed plastic gears. A 0 and 1 bit are encoded with the presence and absence of tooth on the gear, respectively. These gears reflect the WiFi signal differently depending on whether they are transmitting a 1 bit or a 0 bit."
One possible use (Score:5, Interesting)
Though this would appear to be for short-range communications only, I can envision mechanical parts that continuously report how much strain they are encountering while in use. Place a detector head next to a running machine, and overstressed components can be identified right away. This tech could really speed up implementation of new designs.
now try to stop the slurping... (Score:2)
Of your every move to the usual suspects (Google, Facebook, US Gov TLA's, 5-Eyes, SWIMBO)
Re: (Score:2)
That was my first thought as well. The water leak detection sounds pretty awesome but it's definitely concerning that it can effectively be a passive monitoring device.
Re: (Score:1)
Passive monitoring devices have been around for literally decades. Ask the CIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Unlikely to be used for the benefit of people (Score:2, Interesting)
But very likely, additional plastic waste will be added to every-day goods in order for commercially managed WiFi-routers to harvest data from the homes of unsuspecting buyers of those goods.
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My first thought agreed with you about more plastic trash.
I didn't think about how that extra plastic trash will also be applied to invading privacy. Ugh.
Re: (Score:1)
One way communication! (Score:2)
Is not really communication.
Moreover it's not clear that those things always communicate the same message.
It's less than rfid!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: One way communication! (Score:2)
I thought too. But clearly a billboars is comminication too.
It doesn't really imply having to be two-way. Althogh there certainly is a point there, as it is not what we expect when we hear "Internet of things". Blame the advertiser whores and their clickbait headlines.
Not rearry what we mean by that. (Score:2)
We kinda think of devices that can hold ans change a state, when we think about electronics, on top of ommunicating like on the Internet.
This here, while nice, is more like an RFID tag. ;)
Actually, it is a really nice idea. The hedling is just retarded.
Are thr editors paid by stupid fad they are able to cram in to the story?
If yes, I would have gone for "AI", cause clearly it is artificial, and if you twist your balls hard enough, it is also information processing and "hence" intelligence.
Can we make this Turing-complete? (Score:2)
We got information alteration. What we need is state change.
I'm thinking some plasic that deforms depending on both its current shape and the irradiation. Resulting in a different shape that modulates the signal in a different way and also causes different deformation. And so on.
Well-designed, this could be a full computer. With only the radiation source as an energy source.
Thermoplastics already basically got this. It just needs way more energy and is not limited to specific radiation. And I suspect a prop
Privacy nightmare (Score:2)
They will quickly be able to catalog other devices around them, listen/record audio plus location and send it back to the mothership.
Passive RFID Tag (Score:2)
The RFID industry has been working on passive single and multibit tags for decades. Many of these tags have two states and the state transition is sometimes irreversible. They are typically 2D printed. The proposed innovation here appears to be an attempt to change the state of a passive tag reversibly with a simple motion, and possibly more than one bit. Good luck to them, but there are a ton of failed attempts to do similar things.