Texas Instruments's Plans to Power the Internet of Things
The advent of the Internet of Things basically means everything in the whole world is going to have software in it pretty soon. With all this software in our lives, we are faced with a new challenge: powering our many tech-laden devices.
This week at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Texas Instruments plans on unveiling many new innovations. One of them just happens to be a possible solution to the aforementioned power predicament—a sensor network that incorporates ambient energy:
Niranjan Pathare, TI’s senior marketing development manager, explains, “All these ambient energy sources, such as the difference in temperature in a pipe carrying hot water and the outside air, can generate 300 to 400 millivolts, which isn’t enough to power anything. TI has built an ultra-low powered DC-to-DC switching converter that can boost this power to three to five volts.”
Texas Instruments says its current technology may not yet be at the point that the energy jolt could provide enough power for the endless continuous operation of a smart device. Yet, its current efforts could still significantly extend battery life and change the way consumers think about recharging.
As Elizabeth Armstrong Moore at Gigaom reported in a recent wearable roundup, Texas Instruments isn’t the only organization looking for new power sources. Some of the other alternative energy approaches being researched and developed are chips that can convert body heat into electrical energy, photovoltaic cells embedded in clothing that can capture light, converting sweat via epidermal tattoo biofuel cells, and harnessing the energy of electromagnetic radio waves.
Steve Ohr, an analyst at Gartner, commented on the strides being made by Texas Instruments in an article on Computerworld, saying, "they have the parts that will take this micro-power input and actually make some useful voltage and current that could power something."
Even with the indication that Texas Instruments is on the right track to powering devices in the Internet of Things movement, Ohr also cautioned that there is still more work that needs to be done—particularly in relation to the materials in the energy sensors—before Texas Instruments's innovative new products can go to market.
