BFree: New Platform for Developing No-Battery Electronic Devices

A news release from Northwestern University announces the creation of a new platform called BFree, that allows product developers to create electronic devices that do away with batteries, and instead run on intermittent, harvested electricity.

From the press release:

The system includes energy-harvesting hardware (the BFree Shield) and a power-failure-resistant version of Python, one of the most accessible and most used programming languages. All the user needs is a basic understanding of Python in order to quickly and easily turn any do-it-yourself (DIY) smart device into a battery-free version. With this technology, novice programmers can now turn their DIY battery-powered motion sensor, for example, into a solar-powered sensor with an infinite lifetime.

The researchers presented the work today (Sept. 22), at UbiComp 2021, the premier conference for ubiquitous computing. Users can find instructions for how to use the new technology here.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/929292

Here’s a video that explains it further.