Now that smart watches are starting to pick up steam, the race to develop high-speed wearables with long-lasting batteries is on. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPA) are trying to accomplish just that.
JPA’s Adrian Tang and Frank Chang of the University of California, Los Angeles, are collaborating on microchips for wearable devices that swap regular transmitters and receivers for ones that reflect wireless signals.
"The idea is if the wearable device only needs to reflect the Wi-Fi signal from a router or cell tower, instead of generating it, the power consumption can go way down (and the battery life can go way up)," said Tang.
The technology encodes information transmitted to and from wearables using 1s and 0s, similar to the way data is processed on a computer. According to JPL, “When incoming energy is absorbed by the circuit, that's a ‘0,’ and if the chip reflects that energy, that's a ‘1.’ This simple switch mechanism uses very little power and allows for the fast transfer of information between a wearable device and a computer, smartphone, tablet or other technology capable of receiving the data.”
A challenge for the group was that a number of other objects (such as floors, furniture, etc.) reflect signals. Therefore, the wearable device’s chip needed to be able to distinguish the real Wi-Fi signal from the reflection in the background. To accomplish this, Tang and his team crafted a wireless chip that suppresses background reflections, which in turn allows the Wi-Fi signal to function without interference.
During initial tests, the chip functioned successfully at up to 20 feet, achieving a data transfer rate of approximately 330 megabits per second. That’s three times faster than the average Wi-Fi rate, but with significantly less power – approximately 1,000 times less.
"You can send a video in a couple of seconds, but you don't consume the energy of the wearable device. The transmitter externally is expending energy - not the watch or other wearable," Chang shared.
In order for the system to function, a base station and Wi-Fi service is still required. One major downside is that the device the wearable is communicating with needs to have a long battery life or be plugged in. Another key issue is the increased power usage for the router. However, the researchers are working on ways to overcome these problems.
For more information about the new chip, visit JPL’s website.