Perpetual computing: Technologies for banishing batteries

Speakers: Professor Joshua Smith (Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington)

The energy efficiency of computing has improved by a factor of more than a trillion since the electronic computer was invented. This astounding energy efficiency scaling is creating the opportunity for battery-free sensing and computing systems that are powered by radio waves and other ambient energy sources. Such devices can be implanted inside the body, permanently built into structures, or deployed at scales where batteries and wires are infeasible. I will describe my group’s work aiming to enable battery-free, perpetual sensing and computing systems. I will describe our work on RF energy harvesting, wireless power transfer, and ambient backscatter communication, as well as sensor systems built using these building blocks, including a battery-free mobile phone and camera systems. I will also describe computer science research challenges that can help make perpetual computing systems a reality.

This talk is part of the Computer Laboratory Wednesday Seminars series.