The revolution of smart devices marches on as researchers have made printable tags that mirror some functionality of standard smart gadgets.
While that might sound like a major leap at first, it obviously comes with some important caveats. You can’t just slap these on a TV and get Hulu, but they do allow you to use them for some basic home programming.
The tags work by reflecting WiFi signals to a device that’s configured to look for them. By slapping the reflectors on whatever, you can turn them and your phone into a WiFi radar system. When it moves, then, you can trigger other devices on your network to respond accordingly. They can also be configured as keyboards for home speakers systems or other devices that you might have configured to brew your coffee or rub your back or whatever.
“Our vision is to expand the Internet of Things to go beyond just connecting smartphones, smartwatches and other high-end devices,” senior author Xinyu Zhang said. Zhang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UC San Diego and a member of the Center for Wireless Communications was excited about the possibilities. “We’re developing low-cost, battery-free, chip-less, printable sensors that can include everyday objects as part of the Internet of Things.”
Indeed, while their functionality may be pretty limited, their utility comes with ease of manufacture. By printing different patterns, researchers have made all kinds of tags that can reflect everything from WiFi to LTE signals. They also use zero power and need virtually nothing for upkeep.
As one of the more practical applications, Zhang imagined using these systems to help track the recovery of stroke victims.
“When patients return home, they could use this technology to provide data on their motor activity based on how they interact with everyday objects at home—whether they are opening or closing doors in a normal way, or if they are able to pick up bottles of water, for example. The amount, intensity and frequency of their activities could be logged and sent to their doctors to evaluate their recovery,” Zhang Said.
Standard motor activity testing takes one of two forms currently — extensive monitoring in a facility or in the home. And both can be pretty intrusive and time-consuming. This would be a natural, simple, easy way to make steps in that direction saving patients time and money.
Unlike most of the things we write about, this doesn’t actually have a long way to go to finish development and could be implemented soon.