Demo Abstract: Bootstrapping Batteryless Networks Using Fluorescent Light Properties

Communication among batteryless devices is key to their success in replacing traditional battery-supported systems. However, low and unpredictable availability of ambient energy combined with limited energy storage capacity of the devices make efficient communication challenging. As a stepping stone toward addressing this challenge, we propose to leverage common patterns in harvested energy across the devices. In this abstract, we explore one possible approach that exploits a property of many fluorescent light sources used worldwide: their brightness changes with double the power line frequency. We design a circuit that transforms the corresponding changes in energy harvested with a solar panel into a digital signal that is frequency- and phase-synchronized across multiple devices. Based on our design, we build a novel batteryless node, called Flync. Using two Flync nodes, we demonstrate that the synchronized signal can be generated with less than 1 µA and a maximum measured node to node jitter of 363.24 µs.