Let's make the hundreds of millions of batteries used in remote controls today become history. The next chapter is written by ONiO.zero - a batteryless wonderchip that runs on ambient energy!
Reference Design
Remote Control
Introduction
The remote as we know it is a dinosaur - ancient technology! Today, with energy harvesting, the pain of charging and replacing batteries is history!
At the heart of our smart remote solution is ONiO.zero - a batteryless wonderchip that runs on ambient energy! The best part, fewer batteries are thrown away in landfills.
Energy Harvesting
Our surroundings are rife with potentially usable energy that we can harness and store. Energy from WiFI AP, mobile phones and other dedicated terrestrial RF energy sources supplies enough power for the remote to operate.
What's more - super-tiny photovoltaic cells could be used in tandem to make sure you never run out - Given typical light conditions, you could power your remote for eternity - no replacements, no nothing!
Energy sources
RF fields between 650MHz and 2.4GHz.
Any source between 350mV and 4V that produce 5-10μA). E.g. PV/Solar, thermal and motion.
Reliability
Right as rain, safe as houses
Drained batteries and interruptions are best left in the past! With just a little ingenuity, we can design batteryless solutions that, well, just make more sense!
A Zero-compromise user experience
Energy has to be present when the remote is in use. By utilising both RF and PV cell harvesting the remote will constantly be charging - even when its stuck between your sofa cushions.
Ultra-low power requirement
We took a novel new approach to low-power. We designed for nano-watt operation - not milli- or microwatts from day one. This has resulted in a framework that allows applications using a battery today - remove them tomorrow.
All the frills and thrills - IR diode support
We have to acknowledge that most remote controls today still utilise infrared communication. That's why we added a dedicated hardware module for carrier generation and modulation of IR diodes.
User Interfaces
Future proof flexibility
A modern remote control is meant to be user-friendly and flexible. ONiO.zero supports multiple user interfaces - so you’re never caught off guard - whatever your device or need, we’ve got you covered.
Pulse density modulation interface (PDM)
ONiO.zero implements a low power PDM interface for interfacing low power microphones. The supported sampling speeds are 300kHz to 12MHz with support for fractional bitrate.
Capacitive touch
The capacitive touch engine does not require any internal oscillator to run and is fully self-clocked. This means that it’s extremely low power and can asynchronously wake the rest of the system up. True wake on touch!
Button key scanner
Supports 8 rows and 8 columns making for a total of 64 buttons. Runs on an ultra low-power oscillator. Any keypress wakes up the CPU. FIFO (First in First out) of last 8 key presses.
Accelerometer
A low power SPI and two-wire interface are implemented for efficient interfacing with an accelerometer. The data from the accelerometer can be classified by ONiO.zero into gestures.