Taiwan’s TTA Takes Record 82 Startups To CES 2020

For the third year in a row, Taiwan had a significant presence at one of the biggest electronics trade fairs in the world, CES 2020. Leading a delegation of 82 startups presenting in Las Vegas, Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) said it was their largest delegation ever, winning over US$226 million in business opportunities.

Speaking to EE Times Europe at CES, Dr. Yu-Chin Hsu, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Science and Technology, commented, “Taiwan has played an important role in the global high-tech ecosystem in the past 30 years. We have 82 startup teams covering three areas: artificial intelligence (AI), smart technologies, and also in healthcare.” Dr. Hsu emphasized the need for Taiwan and its startups to be connected to the global tech ecosystem in all key markets and applications, which is why presence at a major trade fair like CES is important. “We see that in the future in the AI age, there will be a lot of our startups that become important.”

In addition to promoting its leading startups overseas and connecting them to the global tech ecosystem, Taiwan’s government also works hard to ensure strong collaboration between academia and industry, especially since a lot of leading-edge research is carried out at Taiwan’s research institutes. At CES, we spoke to Dr. Chiou Chyou-Huey, Director General, Department of Academia-Industry Collaboration and Science Park Affairs, Ministry of Science and Technology, who commented, “The Ministry of Science and Technology of government highly encourages industry and academia collaboration. We do so by providing incentives, mentors, mature business models and business plans support.”

He added, “We also provide [academics with] some budget for them to take their scientific research to more mature products or services. Taiwan Tech Arena is a good hub to connect to the international market or international resources. Taiwan is very competitive in terms of talent and technology. That’s the reason why we bring a large delegation to attend CES.

A key focus of the TTA delegation was AI, smart technologies and healthcare. TTA supports startups by providing funding and a platform to grow their businesses. This year it gave the opportunity for startups in the healthcare industry to highlight how AI will improve the quality of lives. The startups which presented at CES 2020 are trying to disrupt current markets and push the boundaries of innovation.

Here we highlight some of the companies that we spoke to on the TTA booth at CES 2020, both in healthcare as well as AI and smart technologies in general.

Hipposcreen Neurotech: objective depression diagnosis

Hipposcreen Neurotech has developed a depression diagnosis system to provide an objective indicator of mental health of a patient, using a system it has developed for brain health assessment. The system combines an electroencephalogram (EEG) recording system and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to provide doctors with a way of rapidly measuring key indicators to identify the mental health of a patient. Using eight EEG electrodes to capture brain waves as input signals to an EEG amplifier, it uses an AI algorithm in the cloud to perform feature extraction and data analysis. Doctors can then view the data and assessment via a web portal within around two minutes.

At CES, the company told us, “We built this system to help doctors to carry out depression diagnosis, to save time and the doctor can also use this report to explain to the patient more easily and provide more accurate assessment results.” Its stress EEG assessment (SEA) system addresses a growing prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) and is expected to be used as an indicator of the level of MDD. The SEA system can achieve accuracy of higher than 80% on the EEG datasets collected as a result of collaboration between the department of psychiatry at National Taiwan University Hospital and Harvard Medical School (McLean Hospital).

Enosim Bio-Tech: an electronic “nose” detects disease

Enosim Bio-Tech has developed a real-time monitoring, breath detection and analysis system to identify ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The core technology is a low power consumption nose-on-a-chip with software, integrated sensors, interface circuits, processors and memory. The breath analysis system uses data from a patient’s breath using the electronic nose to determine known diseases within its dataset. It overcomes environmental interference using a neuromorphic recognition algorithm.

Compared with traditional gas sensing, the e-nose does not use a single sensor, but instead uses multiple sensors to classify a gas. These sensors are combined into an array for odor recognition, and each of the different combinations represents a different odor. Compared with traditional gas analysis instruments, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, the e-nose system is easier to operate and to miniaturize.

The company said, “We are developing new technology to provide fast screening of diseases, by using your breath. If you have cancer or cancer cells, you have bacteria and these have multiple metabolisms, and there will be components existing in your breath. We are trying to detect these molecules.” The development of e-nose still poses many challenges in commercialization, including size and cost. Enosim’s electronic nose technology has been in development for over ten years and is looking to break through the technology bottlenecks.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia refers to a bacterial lung infection in intensive care units (ICU), where patients have been treated with a respirator for more than 48 hours. VAP is the most common nosocomial infection in ICU, and the rate of infection is about 7 to 14%. The mortality rate can reach from 35 to 90%. In ICU, there is an unmet medical need for rapid VAP identification.

RelaJet Tech: allowing people to hear in noisy environments

RelaJet Tech has developed the R1898 DSP, a complete solution for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. The company said it has an AI acoustic fingerprinting engine which carries out edge processing on hearing aids. It said it can extract human voice characteristics within 10 milliseconds and amplify them so that people with hearing difficulties are still able to hear individual people talk in noisy environments. “Our focus of the company is to provide hearing aid solutions. Our key technology is what we call speech separation. We can separate the human voice from environmental noise within a millisecond using our DSP,” said a company spokesperson.

Through just 3-5 seconds of a recording, Relajet said it can label a specific voice, divide it and enhance it in real-time. It can also cancel certain sounds or noises and remove them in real-time. Finally, it can covert 2D sound into 3D – it does so by analyzing sound and environment, and then simulating 3D surround with its engine so that the user can ‘hear the space.’

Taiwan User-Friendly Sensor & Technology: food allergy detection

Existing point of care devices for food allergy detection can only detect gluten over 20 ppm, and hence lack the ability to quantify smaller concentrations. Taiwan User-Friendly Sensor & Technology has developed a point-of-care device based on connected electrochemical sensors, which can quantify targets below 10ppm for multiple proteins simultaneously. With its rapid extraction techniques, the device can readout data in less than two minutes, and costs just a few dollars per test, compared to the thousands of dollars and a few hours to carry out the gold standard ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) tests for food allergy detection.

The company’s co-founder and CTO, Dr. Hsing-Yi Lin said, “Our company is providing a food allergy detection device, which provides very quick detection of allergy. Currently in the lab, detection time takes four hours, but using our technology we can quickly detect allergies within two minutes.”

The company’s device consists of a handheld product which can extract allergens from food, and an electronic keychain reader for sensing allergens, connecting wirelessly to a smartphone to communicate the results.

SWR Technology: wireless power for 5G devices

SWR Technology delivers 65W of wireless power through windows, enabling faster deployment of 5G connected smart devices within homes and buildings in the AIoT world.

In one application, its system solution with RF IC provider MaxLinear can deliver more than 1Gbps symmetrical data rate and up to 35W wireless power through triple-silver-coated low-emissivity (low-e) glass windows up to 35mm thick. The design allows 5G fixed wireless broadband (FWB) service providers to deploy gigabit broadband speeds using mmWave spectrum. With the solution, consumers can self-install small indoor/outdoor devices in the corner of a window, without drilling holes, without running new cables, and without needing a professional installation. The small, low-profile form factor enables aesthetically pleasing designs that will not obstruct views through the window. SWR Technology’s wireless power module uses a proprietary high tolerance resonance transfer technology to transmit 20 Watts of power through standard or triple-silver-coated low-e glass up to 35mm thick.

Shengming Shan, CEO of SWR Technology CEO, told us, “SWR Technology is a mid-distance wireless power technology company. At CES, we are looking to find a lot of great partners that could enlarge and change people’s expectations and user experience with wireless power.”

Mindtronic AI: embedded systems for automotive cockpit DMS

Mindtronic AI is an AI startup with a focus on human machine interaction, designing ultra-light embedded computer vision algorithms serving a wide range of applications. At CES, the company demonstrated its expertise in automotive AI solutions with its cockpit driver monitoring system (DMS) and interaction platform, the DMX. This utilizes high quality biometric technology for a luxury user interface, plus a DMS to assess a driver’s cognition and connect this to the vehicle’s ADAS systems.

The company offers a standalone DMS module board for direct integration with a vehicle’s dashboard system, as well as a software SDK for integrating into any embedded hardware system. Mindtronic AI’s solution is already validated in a vehicle use case. Its’ adaptive algorithm guarantees high-quality image acquisition in adverse lighting conditions, and the algorithms work in concert with the adaptive NIR array and allow the DMS to deliver constant, noise resistant, quality output to the car system. The acquisition speed and quality are enabled by a high performance ultra-lightweight deep learning framework design for low power embedded systems.

Lixel: 3D images without special headsets

Addressing the opportunities for presenting 3D visual images without the need for any special glasses or headsets, Lixel has developed a technology called 3D floating image with interaction. This is based on a light field and Lixel’s patent-designed flat display which can be viewed with the naked eye and features oblique viewing and interaction.

It is based on the founders’ collective expertise in light field technology, and aims to make images more natural, intelligent and responsive than before. Its technology and product can be integrated into products to provide more natural vision and intuitive interaction experiences.

Potential uses include virtual assistants and communication, infotainment applications within cars (floating buttons to enhance safety and navigation), gaming and entertainment, online advertisement, online shopping. Lixel’s technology can be used in everything from general displays to consumer electronics and professional displays, such as in laptops, smartphones, and games consoles.

A spokesperson for Lixel told EE Times, “We develop new technologies beyond 2D: vision and touch technology. We bring the 3D floating image into action. The main purpose to come to CES is to introduce our 3D technology to the world. Because CES is a very important show in entire world. This year we will push ourselves to develop and release our product. We are still developing this market, and of course we will work very closely with our partners to develop new applications.”

Nestech: smart access control systems

Nestech combines edge computing and AI to develop smart access control systems. At CES, the company was showing its smart building control system and ACM smart hazard detection system to enable both management and safety for the hospitality and property management industries. Nestech provides complete turnkey solutions for various industries, ranging from intelligent city, hotel automation, smart home, intelligent office and other potential uses of smart connected devices. It specializes in system integration for internet of things (IoT) device and system development, as well as artificial intelligence IoT (AIoT) systems.

Bluetooth 5.2 SoC Extends Coin-Cell Battery Life Beyond Five Years

By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio

Silicon Labs presented at CES a new system-on-chip (SoC) EFR32BG22 (BG22) that offers hardware and software stack combinations to meet market demand for battery-powered high-volume IoT products.

IoT is a reality present and used in the “consumer” world, with the adoption by consumers of many products/services already widespread from wearable items to “smart” appliances and upcoming transports, connected vehicles, and autonomous/assisted driving.

The advent of the IoT is steering the future of electronics toward a world where physical objects will all be connected and wireless communication will offer higher levels of freedom and flexibility. There is a growing demand for ultra-low-power wireless connectivity from consumers seeking to extend their wireless experience to compact electronic devices with small batteries. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology brings low-cost wireless connectivity to small, long-lasting devices. It was designed from the ground up to meet the need for energy efficiency and design simplicity.

Market analysts at the Bluetooth SIG predict that shipments of Bluetooth devices will grow by 26% by 2023 and that 90% of all Bluetooth devices will include Bluetooth Low Energy by 2023. The key requirements of the market are secure connectivity, i.e., that the devices work with only genuine and reliable firmware and extremely low power consumption.

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Silicon Labs Looks to Apply AI to IoT

Energy consumption in BLE SoCs is generally due to the processor and radio module. The processor can absorb several milliamps during operation. Some BLE radios may peak at 20 mA during transmission. Which part consumes more depends primarily on the application and duty cycle. Most BLE products are designed to sleep as much as possible to save energy, wake up to process, and send data.

With a high-performance, low-power Arm Cortex-M33 core (27 µA/MHz active, 1.2 µA sleep), the new SoC supports the new Bluetooth 5.2 standard, Bluetooth mesh, and direction finding with sub-meter accuracy. The SoC EFR32BG22C112 addresses high-volume and cost-sensitive applications. It has an operating temperature of up to 125°C and extends flash memory up to 512 kB. Target applications include low-power Bluetooth mesh network nodes, smart port locks, and personal health and fitness devices (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Silicon Labs BG22 Secure Bluetooth 5.2 SoC block diagram — *Silicon Labs BG22 Secure Bluetooth 5.2 SoC block diagram*

“From fitness trackers and health and wellness sensors to smartphone accessories and PC peripherals, low-power data transfer represents one of the biggest and fastest-growing application opportunities for Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity,” said Mikko Savolainen, senior marketing manager at Silicon Labs. “Silicon Labs’s EFR32BG22 Bluetooth 5.2 SoCs, announced this week at CES 2020, are ideal for these Bluetooth LE applications, as they require extremely low power consumption to maximize battery life, as well as compact size and the right price points for mass-market IoT products. The new BG22 SoCs provide an optimal combination of energy efficiency, wireless performance, security and software tools, and stacks to meet the market demand for high-volume, battery-powered IoT products.

“In addition to supporting Bluetooth LE data transfer, the SoCs are a great option for Bluetooth mesh low-power nodes and for direction-finding and asset-tracking applications requiring sub-1-meter accuracy. Bluetooth remains the protocol of choice for creating proximity solutions used for point-of-interest information, item finding, and real-time asset-tracking (RTLS) solutions and indoor positioning systems (IPS). BG22 SoCs support Bluetooth 5.1/5.2 direction-finding features, including Angle of Arrival [AoA] and Angle of Departure [AoD], and can be used to build some of the smallest, lowest-power asset tags and beacons as well as RTLS locators.”

Although IoT devices extend the functionality of various machines and components, at the same time, they increase the vulnerabilities of all devices connected to the network. New companies will need to pay attention and move on two fronts, the technological one to capture the potential and the security one to avoid compromising situations.

BG22 SoCs respond to an essential issue of IoT devices: security. The Secure Boot functionality of Silicon Labs with Root of Trust and Secure Loader offers a simple and efficient solution. SoCs support comprehensive fault analysis, allowing developers to investigate problems without erasing the flash. Developers achieve this through the secure debugging of Silicon Labs with lock/unlock encryption capabilities.

Silicon Labs’s CEO on AI and UWB

By Junko Yoshida

LAS VEGAS — “We are still in the early days of market adoption of IoT,” Tyson Tuttle, CEO of Silicon Labs, told EE Times at the company’s booth during CES.

But wait, hasn’t the electronics industry been talking about the internet of things (IoT) for more than two decades? Trace back to the time when RFID tags began to be touted as a must-have in supply chains. (Kevin Ashton, the then-director of the Auto-ID Center, is widely known for having coined the phrase “IoT” back then.)

Besides, the industry supposedly has all the necessary building blocks for IoT: a low-energy microcontroller, wireless connectivity, sensors, and maybe antennas in an IoT module. At this point, isn’t IoT essentially a “bing-bang-boom”?

Not necessarily. Tuttle maintains that IoT is a market that takes decades to unfold. Consider the IoT attach rate for commercial lighting systems, he said. “We are probably at 10% to 15% … It’s still low.”

Selling into the future
In Tuttle’s mind, transitions this big are never done and never enough. Furthermore, the technologies applied to IoT are constantly advancing.

As IoT continues to look for design wins in the industrial market, Tuttle said that the chip supplier’s job is never done at the time of sales. He said, “We are selling our chips into the future.”

In other words, “Our products must be able to support new software, protocol updates, and applications — all that — over the next 10 to 15 years.” That’s a long-haul business.

IoT users in the industrial market are also looking for IoT devices that are contextually aware. Location is one important element.

*Silicon Labs’s new Bluetooth SoC, EFR32BG22*

Silicon Labs just announced this week the company’s new Bluetooth SoCs, capable of asset tracking. The new low-energy device takes advantage of Bluetooth Angle of Arrival and Angle of Departure capabilities, thus offering sub-1-m location accuracy, according to the company.

Location, however, is just one element that can make IoT aware of its context. Others, such as light, sound, voice, and vision, can make IoT devices “a lot more aware of the environment they are operating in,” Tuttle explained.

The next logical step is to add AI to the IoT module. Tuttle promised that Silicon Labs will deliver in 2020 an IoT solution integrated with AI acceleration. By making IoT devices “trainable, actionable, and capable of extracting information and learning from the environment,” they become a lot more contextually aware, he explained.

Of course, Silicon Labs isn’t alone as it looks to add machine learning on end nodes. But rather than forcing inference jobs to run on current devices, Silicon Labs plans to add an AI acceleration feature to the company’s Wireless Gecko Series 2 platform.

Unlike competing AI edge devices plugged into the wall, Tuttle said, “Our goal is to get this [IoT devices with multiple sensors and AI features] hooked up with wireless network or connected smartphones. The name of the game is to enable machine learning on a very low-power, always-on device with a limited memory budget.”

Armed with its Gecko MCUs known for its low-energy sensor interface and interconnect features such as Peripheral Reflex System, Silicon Labs believes it has an edge in the race to add machine-learning features to IoT solutions.

The low-energy sensor interface, for example, can connect to duty-cycling inductive, capacitive, and resistive sensors while autonomously operating in Deep Sleep mode. With Gecko MCUs, the peripherals also connect directly to one another, allowing them to communicate without waking up a CPU or seeking its intervention.

“These are all great features unique to our Gecko MCUs, and some people even say that this is enough,” said Tuttle. But the company is taking more steps to optimize AI functions on IoT devices.

Tuttle wouldn’t disclose details and timelines for the new AI products. However, he implied that they will be ready when Silicon Labs holds its own “Works With Smart Home Conference” in September. “We will bring Google, Amazon, and others onto the stage,” said Tuttle.

How about UWB?
With the introduction of the Bluetooth 5.1 spec, Bluetooth can now do fine-grained positioning. Accuracy of positioning is accomplished by an Angle of Arrival mechanism. Undoubtedly, this will become essential to context-/location-based IoT applications.

But if positioning is so critical, how about using ultra-wideband (UWB)?

Tuttle said, “Absolutely. We are interested. Things are getting more interesting as UWB becomes a part of iPhones and Samsung’s phones.” But he added, “Just to be clear, that is not to say that Silicon Labs is going to do UWB.”

In the past, when UWB was gunning for wireless streaming, positioning itself to compete with Wi-Fi, Tuttle said, “We — at Silicon Labs — never chased that market then.”

While UWB has its limitations, especially at distance, it offers more accurate location than other technologies. UWB will be great for a set of applications, said Tuttle, such as payments at point of sale. “But we will wait and see.”

For its IoT business, Silicon Labs sees itself focusing on local rather than wide-area networks such as LTE and LoRa. The same could apply to UWB. “In our business, what we decide not to do is just as important,” said Tuttle.

Arduino Portenta for IoT Development

By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio

At the cost of $99.99 for its elite version, the new Arduino Portenta H7 was announced at CES. The new board is the first solution in a series for industrial IoT. At its heart is the STMicroelectronics STM32H747 microcontroller, with a dual-core Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M4 on the chip, operating at 480 MHz and 240 MHz, respectively, and a temperature range of –40°C to 85°C.

Laurent Hanus, ecosystem marketing manager at STMicroelectronics, said that Arduino Portenta H7 reflects the exceptional performance of the STM32H747, also offering the usability of the new platform for cloud applications.

Arduino Uno arrived in 2005. The technology par excellence in Italy has become one of the pillars of the maker movement. Many things have changed in recent years. The collapse of hardware prices and the arrival of boards that run MicroPython and JavaScript have changed the ecosystem of open hardware in a profound way. The form factor inherited from Arduino Uno is still around and will surely remain in the minds of developers, but the newer Arduino boards use the more modern MKR form factor.

The Arduino MKR family was born for engineers and makers to offer an extremely fast time to market for the industrial market. What sets the MKR boards apart from the others in the Arduino family is, in addition to the family form factor of 67.64 × 25 mm, the integrated connectivity and potential for any project involving the internet of things.

The fundamental step toward change began with the Maker Faire in Rome, where it was done with the Arduino Pro Development Environment, a definite step ahead of the Arduino IDE. Despite this, the Arduino team also made available in Altium Designer a series of symbols to reduce the time between prototyping and production.

Today, with the new Portenta H7 module, we are preparing for a new maker market. The module is able to run Arduino code natively and can support running Arduino code on the open-source IoT Arm Mbed OS to provide enterprise-grade features while maintaining the familiar Arduino development environment. In addition, it can run Python and JavaScript code, making it more accessible to a wider range of developers.

Portenta H7 has low-power cores capable of processing video from a camera and displaying it on the USB-C connector with DisplayPort. It also has the ability, through the M4 cortex, to perform system tasks such as sensor acquisition and power management. In its complete configuration, Portenta H7 features 32 Mbytes of SDRAM in addition to 1 MB of processor, 128 MBytes of flash in addition to 2 MB of processor, and Ethernet, high-speed USB, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 5.0 (Figure 1).

The wireless module can manage the protocols simultaneously. The Wi-Fi interface can be used as an access point, and Bluetooth supports Bluetooth Classic and BLE. The MKR form factor ensures scalability for a wide range of applications by merely updating the Portenta board to the one suitable for your needs.

Figure 1: Arduino Portenta [Source: Arduino] — Figure 1: Arduino Portenta (Source: Arduino)

“Portenta H7 is the perfect match for crossover applications where considerable computing power is required, but power constraints are very tight,” said Fabio Violante, CEO of Arduino. “Applications include machine learning/AI, motor control, IoT gateways, edge computing, human-machine interfaces, and more.”

The module is directly compatible with most Arduino libraries and can run TensorFlow Lite, JavaScript, MicroPython, Mbed OS, and, of course, Arduino. This means that the solution is able to perform real-time tasks without the need to run real-time operating systems. Cortex M7 has more computational power than most Linux-based processors but consumes even less than some other microcontrollers. At the same time, the M4 core can be used to reduce power consumption further and perform additional tasks without the complexity of multitasking.

“The scalability of the board allows, for high-volume applications, custom-tailoring the cost/feature balance, providing a solution to every need,” said Fabio. “Last but not least, all these features are going to be available through the renowned Arduino simplicity.”

The new Portenta family has been designed to offer scalable processing with complex technologies while maintaining a small footprint. The high number of pins allows reducing the size of the final application while offering good robustness and signal integrity.

CES Unveiled: Gadget Fest with a Moment of Zen

By EE Times Editorial Team

LAS VEGAS – CES Unveiled is a tech fest where startups and established companies pitch and showcase their brightest new ideas and shiniest products, with a strange emphasis on self-improvement.

You name it, Unveiled has everything from ultra-stable drones, “bidirectional” EV chargers to smart road systems that let every car know road conditions and a wrist-band that tells you which foods suit your unique DNA.

The products and prototypes unveiled are an eclectic mix. They often surprise us by offering solutions for problems we didn’t know we had.

In the following pages, we share more than a dozen new technologies/applications spotted at the event on Sunday. To see our full slide show, please click here.

***Thin Enough and Fast Enough for the City***

4D Gravity Comes to Drones
DNA-Based Shopping
Valerann smart roads system
Zen Health with Gardens and Orbs
Plugging EVs into the Grid
Why Is SiFive at CES?
Vital signs monitoring using face detection
Commuter smart safety helmet now has Alexa built in
How well are you brushing your teeth?
Vanity, Thy (Latest) Name is Opté-Skin
Remotely Charged from Milwaukee
Reachy the Legless Robot
Wearables for dogs: find out your dog’s feelings
Non-invasive sensors to monitor aging parents
Thin Enough and Fast Enough for the City
Pokit goes Pro
Smile, you’re on Unveiled Camera
Cool, huh?

Wi-Charge is showing the IR-based Wireless Power Technology for the future of IoT

By Maurizio Di Paolo Emilio

LAS VEGAS — Wi-Charge was at the Consumer Electronics Show to demonstrate its AirCord Technology for long-range wireless power transmission.

Wi-Charge’s patented light-based wireless power supply technology provides a remote power solution for smart home wireless devices, supporting 24/7 operation with increased functionality. PowerPuck (R1) is the latest solution of Wi-Charge; it is a compact long-range wireless charger for smart and IoT devices built with Wi-Charge’s AirCord technology. The charger plugs into a wall outlet or screws into a lightbulb socket, and powers compatible devices wirelessly from distances up to 30 feet.

AirCord technology

Battery-powered devices are portable, but battery capacity limits functionality, and users hate to replace batteries. Power cables provide a lot of power, but the devices are thus tethered to an outlet. According to a 2018 survey by Parks Associates, longer battery life is the most desirable feature for smart home devices.

Wi-Charge’s technology efficiently delivers 100 times the power of batteries, remotely, but offers the convenience of wireless portability and complies with UL, US FDA, and international standards. The increase in the number of smart devices means that wired battery replacement and charging is becoming an impractical and significant concern.

iPropertyManagement estimates that there will soon be over 26 billion IoT devices currently implemented and predicts a three-fold increase by 2025. Suppliers are trying to improve the performance and functionality of IoT devices, but limited battery life slows these efforts.

Facility managers are turning to long-range wireless power to reduce device downtime, eliminate the cost and effort of battery replacement, and reduce the environmental impact of battery disposal.

Developing a wireless power delivery system requires years of research and study to finalize best the source to use. It is important to initially consider various sources such as magnetic fields, radio-frequency waves, ultrasound, and of course, light. The parent company has carried out numerous studies and found that light offers the best combination of power, distance, efficiency, and safety (Table 1).

	Infrared light	Radio Frequency Waves
Power	Up to several watts	Small number of milliwatts while remaining within safety limits
How power changes with distance	Nearly constant power regardless at distance	Power significantly diminishes with the square of the distance
Energy efficiency	High efficiency. In the Wi-Charge system, 100% of the transmitted energy reaches the receiver	Because of the physical properties of RF, only a small portion of transmitted power reaches the receiver.
Safety	UL, FDA and IEC approval for the Wi-Charge system. Certified consumer device.	Regulatory approval currently available only for micro-power systems. Excess RF radiation baths the environment.
Potential interference	Does not impact cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth or other communication networks	Potentially interferes with Wi-Fi, cordless and cellular communications
Type of energy	Natural light. IR is nature’s preferred way of energy delivery.	Man-made radiation. Living organisms are not accustomed to it.

Table 1: Comparing light and radiofrequency radiation as possible sources for wireless charging technology [Source: Wi-Charge].

Power is delivered with millimeter precision using safe, focused, and invisible rays of light. The transmitter uses the standard power supply and can cover about 25 square meters, while the various receivers include a small photovoltaic cell (essentially a small solar cell) to convert the light received into abundant usable electricity.

The receivers can be integrated into a device or connected to an existing charging port. The process of sending energy is fully automatic and safe and supports many simultaneous and moving devices. The technology requires no configuration and provides extensive coverage. Multiple transmitters can be combined to increase coverage and power. It does not interfere with cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, or other communications, and also does not emit ionizing radiation (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Functional layout of Wi-Charge AirCord technology: the transmitter automatically finds devices to be powered, power is delivered with pinpoint accuracy by an invisible beam; if the light is blocked, then the transmission is stopped once the path is clear again [Source: Wi-Charge]

The shortest distance between the receiver and transmitter is a straight line. A path that includes a reflection is longer, thus significantly reducing the energy. For some technologies, power is significantly reduced with distance due to air absorption and reflections. For these technologies, it is particularly essential to achieve straight-line transmission between transmitter and receiver. For Wi-Charge, safety is crucial, which is why the line of sight parameter is also crucial (figure 2). AirCord uses the line-of-sight to offer maximum transmission efficiency, ensuring that all power goes to the transmitter.

Powered by Wi-Charge’s AirCord infrared beam technology, the device requires no configuration, calibration, or tuning — making it the first plug-and-play wireless power solution for smart devices.

*Figure 2: Line of sight [Source: Wi-Charge].*

It can transform a standard home into a wirelessly-powered smart home, or help convert a commercial building into a smart building. The R1 is slightly larger than a Nest Thermostat and is easy to install in a variety of ways. For example, an Edison screw adapter makes it compatible with numerous light fixtures, and a socket adapter allows the R1 to plug directly into a standard wall outlet (figure 3). The receivers can be as small as 0.5 x 0.5 inches and are typically embedded in the charged devices themselves. The PowerPuck showed at CES 2020 and is slated to begin shipping in 2020 and become readily available at that time.

Figure 3: The PowerPuck (R1) device of Wi-Charge [Source: Wi-Charge]

Applications

Inside a vehicle, charging cables are not cheap and also pose a safety risk. In addition to mobile devices, you may also need to power sensors (such as rear seat belt sensors), and their wiring is expensive. Wi-Charge helps to solve this problem by installing a power transmitter near the vehicle’s interior light, thus providing enough energy to charge devices and sensors.

The Wi-Charge solutions power smartphones anywhere in the office. Ceiling-mounted transmitters provide power for all devices safely placed on a table. An intelligent application is a lock for opening and closing doors. Unlike old mechanical locks, intelligent locks add new functionalities. Some locks include an electronic keypad. Others allow you to control the lock from your phone via Bluetooth or WiFi. Some locks include bio-metric security, such as fingerprints. Others add cameras with facial recognition. Design issues are, as always, power and power management issues. In particular, power consumption and battery life.

Power consumption limits the functions that can be added to the system. Battery life is an issue for consumers. If you forget to replace batteries, you may find yourself locked out of your home. By integrating a wireless receiver into the lock, charging and maintaining power may no longer be an issue. The lock gets all the power it needs to enable new features such as video recording without ever replacing the batteries. Wireless charging eliminates the trade-off between functionality and battery life.

The long-range wireless power supply by Infrared Light allows you to freely deliver power without the need for cables. With wireless power, batteries never need to be replaced or wired to a charger.