Seems like the guys from Stanford University were also developing small devices, the size of an ant, that are capable of radio communication without having a battery. The idea is similar to what the guys from Washington did. But the implementation seems different.

Much of the infrastructure needed to enable us to control sensors and devices remotely already exists: We have the Internet to carry commands around the globe, and computers and smartphones to issue the commands. What’s missing is a wireless controller cheap enough to so that it can be installed on any gadget anywhere.

“How do you put a bi-directional wireless control system on every lightbulb?” Arbabian said. “By putting all the essential elements of a radio on a single chip that costs pennies to make.”

Cost is critical because, as Arbabian observed, “We’re ultimately talking about connecting trillions of devices.”

A three-year effort

Arbabian began the project in 2011 while he was completing a PhD program and working with Professor Ali Niknejad, director of the Wireless Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley. Arbabian’s principal collaborator was his wife, Maryam Tabesh, then also a student in Niknejad’s lab and now a Google engineer.

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Source: Stanford News