CRI:CI:SUSTAIN: Next-Generation, Sustainable Infrastructure for the RF-Powered Computing Community

几十年来，微电子的能源效率一直呈指数级增长。低功耗传感、计算和通信平台以永久、无电池的方式运行正在成为可能，所有电力都由射频（RF）信号或其他能量收集提供。无线识别和传感平台（WISP）是一个开源的无电池平台，目前的研究人员最初于2006年推出。已经制造了数百个wisp并分发给世界各地的研究人员。这种基础设施使计算机科学的不同领域的研究成为可能，包括网络、人机交互、普适计算、机器人和其他领域。目前的提案将使研究人员能够将最新的研究成果（如环境反向散射通信）集成到WISP家族中，并从低功耗微电子技术的最新改进中获益。这项提议将使我们能够生产新一代的基础设施，并使其成熟到能够通过硬件销售或其他方式自我维持的地步。我们期望持续的基础设施将支持反向散射通信、低功耗系统和网络以及超低功耗平台应用的研究。无电池传感系统有望实现广泛的新功能，这将在广泛的市场中产生重大的商业影响。计算与物理世界的联系越来越紧密，这种转变可以实现智能环境、更好的医疗保健、更高效的制造等等。然而，需要为物理嵌入式微电子系统供电是一个关键挑战。该项目将使我们能够维持无电池、射频供电计算和通信的WISP基础设施。基础设施将使几个领域的研究成为可能。近年来，PI和co-PI引入了环境后向散射通信和基于后向散射的WISP相机，在研究界得到了广泛的认可。这些工具的广泛使用将使诸如（环境）反向散射网络、无电池相机的应用、无电池相机系统中的交互式压缩和计算机视觉算法等主题的研究成为可能。对于许多计算机和信息科学与工程研究人员来说，这项研究可能在很长一段时间内都无法获得，因为没有广泛可访问的平台来支持这些主题的研究。持续的基础设施还将使新的应用研究成为可能，如改进的人类活动检测系统、无电池输入设备、身体植入电子设备和长期结构健康监测等领域的研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The energy efficiency of microelectronics has been improving exponentially for decades. It is becoming possible to operate low power sensing, computing and communication platforms in a perpetual, battery-free fashion, with all power provided by Radio Frequency (RF) signals or other energy harvesting. The Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) is an open source battery-free platform that the present investigators originally introduced in 2006. Hundreds of WISPs have been manufactured and distributed to researchers around the world. This infrastructure has enabled research in diverse areas of computer science, including networking, Human-Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, Robotics, and other areas. The present proposal will allow the researchers to integrate the latest research results, such as Ambient Backscatter Communication, into the WISP family, and also to reap the benefits of the most recent improvements in low power microelectronics. The proposal will allow us to produce a new generation of the infrastructure and mature it to the point that it becomes self sustaining, via sales of hardware or other means. We expect that the sustained infrastructure will support research in backscatter communication, low power systems and networking, and applications of ultra-low-power platforms. Battery-free sensing systems are expected to enable a wide array of new capabilities, which will generate substantial commercial impact in a wide variety of markets.Computing is becoming connected more and more deeply to the physical world, a transformation that can enable smart environments, better medical care, more efficient manufacturing, and more. However, the need to power physically embedded microelectronic systems is a key challenge. This project will allow us to sustain the WISP infrastructure for battery-free, RF-powered computing and communication. The infrastructure will enable research in several areas. In recent years, the PI and co-PI introduced Ambient Backscatter Communication, and backscatter-based WISP cameras, which have been widely recognized in the research community. Making these tools widely available will enable research on topics such as (ambient) backscatter networking, applications of battery-free cameras, and algorithms for interactive compression and computer vision in battery-free camera systems. This research would likely remain inaccessible for a long time to many computer and information science and engineering researchers, since there are no widely accessible platforms that support research on these topics. The sustained infrastructure will also enable novel application research, in areas such as improved human activity detection systems, battery-free input devices, and also research on body-implanted electronics, and long term structural health monitoring.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.