Drayson said the device could be used to power the various sensors, microcontrollers and wearables that make up the Internet of Things.
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Lord Drayson told the BBC: “It doesn’t require any extra infrastructure, it doesn’t require us to transmit any extra energy, it’s recycling the energy which isn’t being used at the moment”.
The concept behind Freevolt isn’t entirely new.
Dubbed the Freevolt, the device consists of a multi-band antenna and rectifier capable of absorbing energy from multiple RF bands at nearly any orientation.
This DC energy is then fed into a power management module that boosts the voltage and it is this voltage that is used to charge a battery or other energy source, such as a super-capacitor for example. Last year, University of Washington researchers announced they’d found a way to power low-energy devices using the same method, on top of allowing battery-free devices to connect to the internet by reusing existing Wi-Fi signals. Limited battery life has so far been a major drawback of smartwatches and activity trackers, but with Freevolt tech built in, it’s possible that one day we may not have to worry about constantly recharging them, the company hopes.
Freevolt is a newly developed technology, based off a pre-existing idea, by former science minister and entrepreneur, Lord Drayson.
The first commercial application of Freevolt is the CleanSpace Tag air sensor, manufactured in the UK.
“We were really pleased in the Freevolt technologies togerher with its vast fitness to capability the Internet of Things”, said Frazer Bennett, technologies master at Pennsylvania Consulting Group who might made to plan a CleanSpace appliance.
Called the CleanSpace it is a personal air pollution monitor created to sit in the wearer’s pocket and the measure air pollution where they are, 24/7.
It takes carbon dioxide readings and sends this data to an app and never needs charging because it uses the Freevolt technology to harvest energy from RF signals.
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For now Freevolt technology is technically pocket-sized, but Drayson Technologies is working on making it even smaller and more flexible so it could work better with compact wearable products. Given how readily available RF signals are in urban areas, by harnessing these signals, it could use that energy to keep things powered without having to create new energy.
