UW team builds sensors that run for decades on 1 battery

Researchers at the University of Washington and colleagues at Georgia Institute of Technology have figured out a way to make electronic sensors run for perhaps 50 years on a single battery.

They're starting a company to commercialize the invention, which is already attracting potential customers.

"We're moving pretty quickly," said principal investigator Shwetak Patel, an assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

The key discovery was figuring out how to use the copper wiring inside a house as an antenna to transmit information from the sensors, which could be used by medical devices or home automation systems.

A prototype placed within 10 to 15 feet of electrical wiring is able to send data to a base station plugged anywhere in the home. Testing in a 3,000-square-foot home found only 5 percent of the house was out of the system's range.

Patel said that power consumption has held back the use of sensors in the home. But the antenna system could enable the sensors to run effectively forever on a single battery — perhaps 50 years.

"Basically the battery will start to decompose before it runs out of power," he said in the release.

Patel's previous venture, a company called Zensi developing energy-monitoring systems, was sold to Belkin in April.

Proceeds from that deal are providing seed funding for the new company, which doesn't yet have a name. Patel, 28, said the company will be based in Seattle and run by others. He wants to continue teaching.

Backstage sale

As part of its effort to build up its GameHouse platform, RealNetworks this week bought a social-games company in Victoria, B.C.

Backstage Technologies — which worked on the Facebook version of "Family Feud" — has expertise engineering and monetizing games for social platforms, Real said in its release.

The purchase price wasn't disclosed; Real said it won't materially affect Real's sales or earnings in 2010.

Real Chief Executive Bob Kimball's said:

"As we transform RealNetworks, we will focus on areas with strong revenue growth and profit potential that will realize the value of our core businesses. The most compelling growth opportunity in games today is social games, and this acquisition is part of our commitment to make our entire GameHouse business social."

Backstage has 18 employees, who will remain based in Victoria. Its catalog includes "Pull Tabs," "Scratch and Win," "Slots" and "Vinyl City."

It figures online

After a rocky start last year, Bellevue game startup Smith & Tinker is overhauling its online game platform for young boys.

The company stopped making handheld devices to play its "Nanovor" action-collecting game offline and instead is focusing on browser-based gaming and gaming on Apple devices and Facebook.

It also announced a major licensing agreement with Disney's Marvel portfolio for games that will appear starting in the second quarter 2011. The new Nanovor game is appearing this fall, and versions for Apple iOS devices are planned for the fourth quarter.

"We're in a fairly good place from a development standpoint at this point and our existing investors are continuing to be supportive of us," said co-founder Joe Lawandus, who was earlier vice president and general manager of Disney Toys & Sporting Goods.

Smith & Tinker launched Nanovor with a major promotional campaign and retail presence last holiday season, using $29 million raised from Paul Allen and other investors.

By December it was cutting staff and now employs 25, less than half its level at launch.

The smaller team was still able to re-create the Nanovor game with new 3-D graphics and social-networking features in a lighter software package that runs in browsers, without the download client the game originally required.

The sci-fi game is aimed at pre-teen boys, who can buy collectible characters and then upgrade them with achievements earned by playing games on the site.

The underlying platform will now be used to support games using Marvel comic-book characters. Those games will aim for a broader range of players and be playable on Facebook, as well as in browsers and on Apple mobile devices.

Brier Dudley's blog excerpts appear Thursdays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.