Project description
Building IoT devices that consume no standby power
Just like your smartphone waits to receive a call, IoT devices are constantly ready and waiting for a command. They work by converting external signals such as a sound into electrical currents. However, being ‘always-on’ causes significant battery drainage. In this context, the EU-funded INFOPASS project will develop a zero-power event detection method. To that end, researchers will work on designing novel components based on architected elastic microstructures, focusing on passive speech recognition. The invention of devices that passively perform complex information processing tasks will lead to mobile devices with longer battery life, and which consume no standby power.
Objective
Smart devices constantly monitor the environment and analyse the resulting stream of information, waiting for wake-up events ranging from a skipped heartbeat in a pacemaker to a verbal command in an intelligent speaker. In electronic devices, such constant workload requires reliable power and leads to significant battery drainage. The aim of INFOPASS is to answer the need for zero standby power, always-on sensing and processing, by inventing novel components based on architected elastic microstructures. We will focus on passive speech recognition: Vibrating structures that respond with large amplitudes only when excited by a particular spoken word. The components will be based on artificial neural networks of mechanical resonators -- benefiting from their ultra-low power dissipation and bypassing the inefficient transduction between acoustic and electric signals. The goal of passive speech recognition is challenging due to the required device complexity. Conventional micromechanical systems consist of a few resonators, while neural networks require thousands of nodes, pushing the limits of design and fabrication technologies by orders of magnitude. The proposed work builds on my invention of a two-step structure design method: Advanced responses are engineered by first encoding the desired response in an effective mass-spring model, which is then translated into a structural geometry. Compared to full-wave simulations, mass-spring models speed-up the optimisation process by more than a thousand-fold, allowing us to 'train' the structures on realistic speech corpuses. The invention of devices that passively perform complex information processing tasks will lead to mobile devices with longer battery life, always-on Internet-Of-Things devices that consume no standby power, and battery-less health monitoring sensors ? potentially impacting billions of devices.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- natural sciences mathematics pure mathematics geometry
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3526 KV UTRECHT
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.