Powercast Corp. and InPlay have created a platform that will allow engineers to create battery-free, maintenance-free long-range wireless internet of things (IoT) sensor systems.
At Sensors Converge, the companies will demonstrate the platform that will use Powercast’s RF-to-DC power harvesting technology as a new option to power InPlay’s NanoBeacon IN100 active Bluetooth sensor. The IN100 can be attached to nearly any other sensor for real-time location monitoring and could be paired with sensors to monitor conditions such as light, humidity and temperature.
The platform could be used to deploy IoT systems for monitoring in:
- Retail
- Medical
- Warehousing
- Industrial IoT
Powercast’s far-field wireless technology can power sensors from 120 ft away from a transmitter, enabling a beacon signal every minute. As the NanoBeacon moves farther from an RF transmitter, beacon signals become less frequent and moving it closer allows more frequency if the application needs it.
The NanoBeacon IN100 aims to make smart sensor systems using active RFID technology affordable and easy to deploy via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The device can be configured via an app, requires no software programming, transmits data up to 300 ft and features software-defined radio (SDR) edge networking to connect tens of thousands of IoT devices.
