Scaling IoT With Battery Free Bluetooth - The Technology And The Applications (Internet of Things Applications USA 2017)

Bluetooth beacon deployments have been growing rapidly towards the 565m unit shipments forecasted by ABI for 2021, but there are headwinds. While these devices have proliferated because of small size, low cost, long life and low maintenance costs, however the same factors are constraining their adoption. Adoption of a smaller, lower cost device has the potential to scale even faster.

 

We will discuss Wiliot's approach to addressing the constraints that are holding back the growth of IoT. Wiliot is combining many of the architectural approaches used with RFID to create a Bluetooth sensor that is passive. It harvests energy from radio frequencies to reduce the package size to that of the sticker, leveraging a perpetual power source and reducing cost by an order of magnitude relative to traditional Bluetooth beacons. We will review the techniques being used to achieve this and the applications for this technology.

Steve Statler is the author of Beacon Technologies, the presenter of the Mister Beacon podcast and a Senior VP at Wiliot where he is responsible for consulting, marketing and business development. Wiliot is a fabless semiconductor company connecting people and products with battery-free Bluetooth tags powered by harvesting energy from radio waves.

Prior to Wiliot his consulting company specialized in Bluetooth beacon technology, training and advising manufacturers, venue owners, VCs, as well as makers of beacon software and hardware. Previously he was the Senior Director for Strategy and Solutions Management at Qualcomm's Retail Solutions Division, helping to incubate Gimbal, one of the leading Bluetooth beacons in the market.

Wiliot is a semiconductor company whose mission is to connect people with products using cloud connected, sticker sized Battery Free Bluetooth tags. The company was founded by the leadership of the Gigabit Wi-Fi pioneer Wilocity, a group of wireless engineers experienced in building new products and the ecosystems required for their success. In January 2019, Wiliot announce a major milestone: The first battery-Free Bluetooth® sticker sensor tag demonstrated at The National Retail Federation Big Show. Additionally, Wiliot announced Amazon Web Services, Avery Dennison and Samsung joining Wiliot's original investor group for a $30 Million Series B Funding Round. Wiliot has a research and development team based in Israel and a business development headquarters in San Diego, California.