The Internet of Things is a revolution that couldn’t have been possible without the intelligent deployment of sensors of a myriad variety. However, as more and more sensors make their presence felt in the IoT, power consumption spikes. A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been working on this problem – and have possibly found a solution to the same. MIT researchers have found a way that could be implemented to bring down the level of energy consumed by such sensors.
At the heart of this potentially path breaking idea, is a circuit design that could cause sensors to become more power efficient. Recently, a study by Verizon revealed that currently, there are about 1.2 billion IoT devices in globally. These devices transmit or receive data using wireless technology so as to offer alerts and analysis to users. Verizon projects that the number of IoT devices could soar to about 5.4 billion globally by 2020.
The researchers noted during their study that most sensors that are deployed in the IoT stay idle until the time they are prompted to transmit or receive data. In the idle state, sensors tend to experience energy leakage. But with their new circuit design, researchers have found a way in which transmitters could bring down this energy leakage by about 100 times when in the idle state. This could effectively bring down the battery life of sensors by several months.
A number of wireless technologies are now reaching new efficiency milestones. Despite this positive shift, they still continue to be energy guzzlers. The MIT researchers kept this aspect in mind during the study, and ensured that they did not compromise of the quality or speed of wireless connectivity. The new design can generate enough amounts of power to send and receive data via a Bluetooth device or to the 802.15.4 specification.
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