Energy-Harvesting-Powered Multifunctional and Multiprotocol IoT Device
Redpine Signals, Inc. today announces the release of the industry's first multi-functional device with Wi-Fi, BT and BT-LE connectivity and incorporating photovoltaic energy harvesting. The device includes a sensor and an e-paper display that maintains display content at microwatts of power consumption. The device uses Redpine's RS9113 M2MCombo™ SoC device to provide connectivity through Wi-Fi, BT and BLE wireless interfaces for sensor data transfer and display updates through the Internet of Things (IoT).
"Cisco recently launched an Internet of Things (IoT) division, focusing on linking data, machines and people and the standards that go with them," said Bob Friday, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. "Redpine's solutions, together with a wireless IP network interface, will be a key ingredient for enabling enterprise IoT solutions for customers to transform their business and enhance their user experience through connected devices."
The device also supports location in conjunction with Redpine's RTLS infrastructure. The extremely low power e-Paper display ensures that, with normal indoor lighting, display updates are possible every few minutes perpetually without the use of a battery. Configuring and re-configuring of the device is achieved either through an IP network via Wi-Fi or through a smartphone via BT or BLE. WiSeMote-EH supports multiple wireless protocols to exploit the strengths of each for a given metric. All IP data connectivity is supported by Wi-Fi while local control and monitoring is achieved with ultra-low-power BLE interface.
"We have leveraged Redpine's technology and expertise in ultra-low-power wireless chip and system design and in RTLS in creating the WiSeMote-EH device," said Venkat Mattela, CEO of Redpine Signals. "All core components of the device are optimally developed for this application which include an ultra-low-power RF transceiver, a high-efficiency CMOS power amplifier, a multi-thread processor, firmware and system design. We spent many person years of effort to engineer the firmware to give us the system profile to sustain the required operation for the available energy harvested," he added.
The versatile device finds application in a number of areas. These include retail stores—for displaying product information updates; and conferences— for displaying attendee information and promotions, among others. The WiSeMote-EH is sampling now with production quantities in Q12014.
