What if battery life or plugging into a power source was never a concern for powering a device?  The possibilities for utilization are endless. The University of Washington, along with a Google Faculty Research Award and the National Science Foundation’s Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, funded research to develop a wireless communication system that is battery/wire free.

The researchers are calling the new technique “ambient backscatter,” and it works by reflecting already existing TV and cellular transmissions. The researchers are hopeful for possible applications of this technique such as self-sustaining sensor networks, mobile devices, and smart features across a wide variety of areas. The following video gives the details of how this “ambient backscatter” works and could be utilized:

You can find today’s news release here: Wireless Devices Go Battery-Free With New Communication Technique