Technology Trending: smart meter app platform, wireless charging, electric racing car

An app platform for next generation smart meters, wireless charging for the metaverse and a two-seater electric racing car are in the week’s technology radar.

App platform for next gen smart meters

Landis+Gyr is extending a long term collaboration with device software developer MicroEJ to expand the app development environment for its Revelo next generation of smart meters.

Through its software ‘containerisation’, MicroEJ Virtual Execution Environment provides an app operating system for Landis+Gyr’s Revelo meter. Running on the MicroEJ platform, Revelo can support both grid facing and consumer applications to optimise the management of the grid and improve consumer engagement, as well as support the integration of distributed energy resources.

Todd Bushey, vice president, technologies at Landis+Gyr, says the next generation of meter technologies are a critical next step for energy management, with for example the edge intelligence and sensing functions that are a feature of the Revelo and of other meters.

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“The flexibility of the MicroEJ environment enables us to provide an effective platform for app enablement and expansion in the future.”

Previously Landis+Gyr and MicroEJ have collaborated on apps for the Gridstream Connect system.

Wireless device charging for the metaverse

Wireless charging of electronic devices is becoming ever more pervasive but is primarily limited by range, requiring the device to be adjacent – or at least very close – to the charger.

But that is changing with new releases at CES 2023. Powercast Corporation has launched its Ubiquity transmitter as an ultra-low-cost RF power transmitter to charge multiple RF enabled devices in a room. To use it however, a Powercast power harvesting receiver chip must be embedded in the end device.

Then there is the wireless tech startup Ixana, which is bringing a different approach with its Wi-R technology, which is conceived on the natural ability of the body and its surrounding electromagnetic field as a conductor. Thus, Wi-R could for example enable a smartphone in a pocket to power a headset on one’s face by simply transmitting the data across the body’s surface.

With the metaverse in mind the company believes it could lead to a new generation of sleeker and more power efficient personal devices such as headsets, which today are bulky due to the chunky batteries to power them.

“Everybody is trying to cram the computing in [VR glasses],” says Shreyas Sen, co-founder and chief technology officer of Ixana.

“And it takes a huge amount of power, so it looks big. In the future, we imagine you will have technology all around you that gives you similar capability in a distributed network around your body. ”

The technology has still to catch on but in the meantime Ixana, which boasts the backing of Samsung among other “major players”, has unveiled a developer platform for third parties to start developing applications.

The power of e-mobility

With e-mobility gathering momentum new battery technologies are continually being sought to improve vehicle performance and range.

To showcase EV Metals’ latest family of advanced nickel-rich cathode materials in batteries, the company has partnered with the Envision Racing Formula E team on what is claimed to be the world’s first two-seater electric racing car.

The new vehicle has a top speed of is 240km/h, with an acceleration speed of 0 to 100km/h in just 3.2 seconds, powered by batteries that have about 20% greater energy density than some of the best batteries currently on the market.

The car’s design centres upon a streamlined, carbon-fibre monocoque platform that’s been engineered to allow the driver and passenger to sit in tandem formation, one behind the other.

Sylvain Filippi, managing director and CTO of Envision Racing, says that one of the key functions of electric motorsport is to act as a testing ground for the latest battery innovations.

“As the climate crisis escalates, our sport has a unique role to play in accelerating the mass adoption of e-mobility and the transition to clean, green and affordable renewable energy. The idea is that the cutting-edge batteries in this vehicle represent the future of consumer EVs.”