Future of IoT will be ‘smart dust’, says Cambridge Consultants

Two years ago, the UK product design firm revealed its Pizzicato technology, the first all-digital radio transmitter. It consists of an antenna and an integrated circuit outputting a single stream of bits, with no conventional radio parts or digital-to-analogue converter. The company’s proprietary algorithms perform computations that allow standard digital technology to generate high-frequency radio signals in real time.

By removing analogue Bluetooth components, Cambridge Consultants has reduced the silicon cost of radio transmitters to just seven cents, less than a tenth of current costs. It also means radio size can shrink dramatically, and the technology can benefit from Moore’s Law.

"To date, the cost of a radio has been determined by its analogue components – until you eliminate those, Bluetooth will always be limited by the price point," said Rob Milner, head of smart systems at Cambridge Consultants.

"By massively reducing the cost of a technology that has a long range and can communicate with the billions of connected devices already deployed, we’ve helped open up more scope for revenue-generating and disruptive digital services.”