Nowi: Wi-Fi powered climate sensors
Themes: Energy, Software technology & Intelligent systems
Early stage commercial environment application
A TRL is a measure to indicate the matureness of a developing technology. When an innovative idea is discovered it is often not directly suitable for application. Usually such novel idea is subjected to further experimentation, testing and prototyping before it can be implemented. The image below shows how to read TRL’s to categorise the innovative ideas.
Why?
Current climate sensors in buildings require batteries (costly because they need to be replaced often) or wiring (inflexible and expensive) to function. Nowi sensors harvest energy from radio frequencies instead.
How?
The sensors use ambient Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G or GSM signals as a power source. They are therefore wireless and need much less battery replacements, which saves maintenance costs and reduces the environmental load.
When?
Nowi's first product is a smart temperature sensor, other sensor types (motion, air quality) will follow soon. A complete sensor system will be tested at The Green Village. A market ready application will be finished before the end of 2017.
Omar Link MSc