The ScenSor DW1000 is designed to let people locate important items such as medical equipment or children with wireless technology. November 8, 2013 2:00 AM PST DecaWave's DW1000 chip measures 6x6mm and costs about $33. (Credit: DecaWave) Misplaced your defibrillator again? Can't find the dog? Trying to keep track of your warehouse's forklifts? An Irish chip designer called DecaWave has announced its first chip, the ScenSor DW1000, designed to let customers locate objects indoors with a precision of 10 centimeters, or about 4 inches. The devices uses the IEEE 802.15.4a wireless communication standard to pinpoint the location of medical equipment, pets, or other items. Related stories First, smart cars. Next, smart transport grids How Google's robo-cars mean the end of driving as we know it SmartThings opens shop for Internet of Things Counting the Internet of things in real time Sensor motes sniff out Google I/O data trends The chip should cost about $33 -- too expensive for attaching to a fob so you don't lose your keys, perhaps, but justifiable for more costly or important items. To use it, the chip would be embedded in a device attached to the item then tracked using wireless anchors that can determine the range to the device. The position can be calculated by measuring radio signals' "time of flight"; the longer it takes to send a signal, the farther away the device is. The chips, measuring 6x6mm, consume power slowly enough that -- enough that a battery could power them for years, the company said. They also could be powered by energy harvesting -- technology that extracts power from environmental conditions such as body heat or the shock waves that traverse rotating tires. "Until now, 10cm location communications across close distances was not possible and current systems with meter-level accuracy have limited reliability, signals would be lost and there was a high risk for error," said DecaWave Chief Executive Ciaran Connell in a statement Thursday. "Our new ScenSor chip changes all that. It provides unprecedented accuracy all the time." DecaWave's DW1000 chip can be attached to medical devices or other apparatus that must be located precisely indoors. It enables location precision of 10cm, or about 4 inches. (Credit: DecaWave) The Dublin-based company is hoping to tap into an idea called the Internet of things, in which vastly more objects than computers, TVs, and mobile phones get attached to the Net. That could include everything from doorknobs and hotel air conditioners to traffic signals and cattle. Often such communications are machine-to-machine (M2M), in which devices and computers interact automatically. Such connections could be made with conventional Wi-Fi communication links, but that can require more computing and electrical power that is available to some devices. That's why engineers have created the 802.15.4 standard for short-range wireless networks that have relatively low data rates. The standard provides plumbing for higher-level protocols including ZigBee.
The ScenSor DW1000 is designed to let people locate important items such as medical equipment or children with wireless technology.
DecaWave's DW1000 chip measures 6x6mm and costs about $33.
(Credit: DecaWave)
Misplaced your defibrillator again? Can't find the dog? Trying to keep track of your warehouse's forklifts?
An Irish chip designer called DecaWave has announced its first chip, the ScenSor DW1000, designed to let customers locate objects indoors with a precision of 10 centimeters, or about 4 inches. The devices uses the IEEE 802.15.4a wireless communication standard to pinpoint the location of medical equipment, pets, or other items.
Related stories
- First, smart cars. Next, smart transport grids
- How Google's robo-cars mean the end of driving as we know it
- SmartThings opens shop for Internet of Things
- Counting the Internet of things in real time
- Sensor motes sniff out Google I/O data trends
The chip should cost about $33 -- too expensive for attaching to a fob so you don't lose your keys, perhaps, but justifiable for more costly or important items. To use it, the chip would be embedded in a device attached to the item then tracked using wireless anchors that can determine the range to the device. The position can be calculated by measuring radio signals' "time of flight"; the longer it takes to send a signal, the farther away the device is.
The chips, measuring 6x6mm, consume power slowly enough that -- enough that a battery could power them for years, the company said. They also could be powered by energy harvesting -- technology that extracts power from environmental conditions such as body heat or the shock waves that traverse rotating tires.
"Until now, 10cm location communications across close distances was not possible and current systems with meter-level accuracy have limited reliability, signals would be lost and there was a high risk for error," said DecaWave Chief Executive Ciaran Connell in a statement Thursday. "Our new ScenSor chip changes all that. It provides unprecedented accuracy all the time."
DecaWave's DW1000 chip can be attached to medical devices or other apparatus that must be located precisely indoors. It enables location precision of 10cm, or about 4 inches.
(Credit: DecaWave)
The Dublin-based company is hoping to tap into an idea called the Internet of things, in which vastly more objects than computers, TVs, and mobile phones get attached to the Net. That could include everything from doorknobs and hotel air conditioners to traffic signals and cattle. Often such communications are machine-to-machine (M2M), in which devices and computers interact automatically.
Such connections could be made with conventional Wi-Fi communication links, but that can require more computing and electrical power that is available to some devices. That's why engineers have created the 802.15.4 standard for short-range wireless networks that have relatively low data rates. The standard provides plumbing for higher-level protocols including ZigBee.
