Ultra-low-power Wireless Streaming Cameras
This enables low-power video streaming for applications such as micro-robots and security cameras, representing a novel approach rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the high power consumption of wireless video streaming by introducing an ultra-low-power camera that uses an analog video backscatter technique to eliminate components like ADCs and amplifiers, achieving streaming at up to 13 FPS over 150 feet with a power consumption of 2.36mW.
Wireless video streaming has traditionally been considered an extremely power-hungry operation. Existing approaches optimize the camera and communication modules individually to minimize their power consumption. However, the joint redesign and optimization of wireless communication as well as the camera is what that provides more power saving. We present an ultra-low-power wireless video streaming camera. To achieve this, we present a novel "analog" video backscatter technique that feeds analog pixels from the photo-diodes directly to the backscatter hardware, thereby eliminating power consuming hardware components such as ADCs and amplifiers. We prototype our wireless camera using off-the-shelf hardware and show that our design can stream video at up to 13 FPS and can operate up to a distance of 150 feet from the access point. Our COTS prototype consumes 2.36mW. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of our design, we built two proof-of-concept applications: video streaming for micro-robots and security cameras for face detection.