Energous and Syntiant Collaborate for Wireless Charging of Always-on Edge AI Processors

Energous Corporation, a leading developer of RF-based charging for wireless power networks, announced a collaboration with Syntiant, a provider of deep learning solutions making edge AI a reality for always-on voice, sensor and image applications, to develop and implement Energous’ WattUp wireless power network technology with Syntiant’s Neural Decision Processors (NDPs) for edge artificial intelligence (AI) deployments across a wide range of consumer and industrial use cases.

California-based Syntiant combines the industry’s most efficient silicon with a data platform and training pipeline, providing customers with low-cost, turn-key solutions that put deep learning processing into almost any edge device, free from cloud connectivity, ensuring privacy and security. The company’s ultra-low-power NDPs are being designed into earbuds, wearables, medical devices, mobile phones, laptops, smart home appliances, as well as industrial IoT equipment and automobiles. Designed by applying a clean-sheet, hardware/software co-design methodology, Syntiant’s AI processors deliver 100x more efficiency and 10x the throughput compared to current low-power microcontroller unit solutions.

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“Deployment of IoT edge devices for industrial, retail and other applications is expanding as they enable new data processing capabilities,” said Cesar Johnston, CEO of Energous. “With this expansion, however, comes concerns around delivering guaranteed levels of power to these billions of devices that are often significant distances away from a reliable power source. Our collaboration with Syntiant is aimed at addressing this challenge by integrating our WattUp receiver technology with Syntiant’s deep learning technology for edge AI applications, enabling them to harvest RF-based energy from Energous WattUp PowerBridge transmitters.”

“Syntiant’s Neural Decision Processors help reduce infrastructure costs by moving AI processing from the cloud to the edge, reliably, securely and with nominal power consumption,” said Kurt Busch, CEO of Syntiant. “We share a similar perspective with Energous that much of tomorrow’s innovation is happening at the edge, and our collaboration will successfully demonstrate both technologies working together, delivering power where it is not, while providing highly accurate, cloud-free inference across a wide range of consumer and industrial applications.”

Unlike passive solutions that harvest ambient energy from the surrounding environment, which typically offer extremely low amounts of power and can be unpredictable in terms of how much power is available, Energous’ wireless power network solutions include a WattUp PowerBridge transmitter that emits conducted RF power in a specific area or direction. This RF-based energy is then harvested by receiving devices. Energous’ wireless power networks support “one to many” charging, allowing multiple devices to be simultaneously charged from a single transmitter. It is applicable to a wide range of industries and applications, from drug storage monitors and patient trackers in a healthcare setting, to smoke detectors and motion sensors in a smart home, to fault prevention, temperature and other safety sensors in an industrial environment.

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