Yesterday during my jog with my friend we were chatting about if there are low powered connectivity solutions for devices. We knew about Bluetooth Low Energy and continuously shrinking WiFi chips. We also knew that WiFi has been focused on enabling higher bandwidth and longer distances.
Today I discovered Passive WiFi which promises to reduce the power consumption to significantly low amount – in the microwatt range. True to its name, Passive WiFi in detail, describes a system that removes some of the expensive circuits off board to reduce power consumption. Yes, the home station – or the plugged in WiFi host will require additional power. Still that device can be shared across a dozen or more passive wifi devices reducing the overall system costs. True Innovation. Great work from UW CS folks.
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