UbiquiTouch

Anandghan Waghmare, Qiuyue Xue, Dingtian Zhang, Yuhui Zhao, Shivan Mittal, Nivedita Arora, Ceara Byrne, Thad Starner, Gregory D. Abowd

2020Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive Mobile Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies40 citationsDOI

Abstract

We present UbiquiTouch, an ultra low power wireless touch interface. With an average power consumption of 30.91μW, UbiquiTouch can run on energy harvested from ambient light. It achieves this performance through low power touch sensing and passive communication to a nearby smartphone using ambient FM backscatter. This approach allows UbiquiTouch to be deployed in mobile situations both in indoor and outdoor locations, without the need for any additional infrastructure for operation. To demonstrate the potential of this technology, we evaluate it in several different and realistic scenarios. Finally, we address the future application space for this technology.

Topics & Concepts

Computer scienceWirelessPower consumptionBackscatter (email)Power (physics)Energy consumptionTelecommunicationsEnergy (signal processing)Interface (matter)Real-time computingEmbedded systemElectrical engineeringEngineeringPhysicsBubbleParallel computingMaximum bubble pressure methodQuantum mechanicsEnergy Harvesting in Wireless NetworksOpportunistic and Delay-Tolerant NetworksBluetooth and Wireless Communication Technologies