Unpowered sensing wins a prize
A novel sensing system for large machines and distributed plant systems, including heating systems in hospitals, receives recognition
Richard Little, chairman of Whitchurch based Jenton International won the Fareham Borough Council Communications Award at last month's Innovention 2006 show in Winchester.
Richard's unique idea is to have a sensing system powered entirely by wireless signals generated by the interrogating equipment.
It thus does away with the need for either mains or optical powering or batteries.
Applications range from ensuring the proper performance of the equipment on large printing machines through measuring temperatures in hospital hot water systems to human blood sugar monitoring.
Richard describes the unpowered sensing system as, “Nearly RFID”. The sensors are normally unpowered and passive, but when approached by an interrogating Pocket PC, are powered up from it by induced current, identify themselves and deliver a reading of whatever they are measuring.
Full details may be found in the August 2006 edition of "Eureka".
