Perennial and Personalized Sensing through Wireless Energy

Speaker : Kaushik Chowdhury
Genesys
Date: 21/06/2017
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: LINCS Seminars room

Abstract

In a future where implanted and wearable sensors continuously report physiological data, how to power such sensors without battery replacement and developing new communication methods that are safe for human tissues remain as unexplored frontier. This talk describes recent advances in designing systems and protocols for contactless wireless charging using using RF waves and the use of weak electrical currents for data transfer among body implants. It explores the fundamental tradeoffs that exist between achieving high data and recharging rates, constructive mixing of radiated signals through beamforming, MAC protocols that allow differential data/energy access, and the promise of simultaneous transfer of data over energy. The talk shall also cover some latest results in charging sensors purely from ambient cellular signals in Boston city. On the implant side, advances in channel modeling and topology placement strategies are discussed with experimental results on low-overhead data transfers from an embedded implant to an on-skin relay node.