On-demand communication with the batteryless MiroCard
Andres Gomez
Abstract
Over the last decade, energy harvesting has seen significant growth as different markets incorporate green and sustainable electrical energy production. Even though costs have fallen, few products in the Internet-of-Things marketplace have embraced solutions based on energy harvesting. This is partly due to a mismatch in both the power density and timeliness of energy production and consumption. Until recently, harvesting-based systems required a battery or supercapacitor to be functional. After years of research, advances in energy management techniques have enabled the design of fully batteryless sensing devices. This demo introduces the batteryless MiroCard, a novel smart-card powered by light. Its fast wake-up times and energy-efficient operation allow the MiroCard to emit BLE beacons even in low ambient light conditions.