These metal washers are replacing smart home sensors, and they work without a single wire or battery
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Georgia Tech researchers have developed passive metal washers that replace traditional battery-powered smart home sensors. Each washer has custom cutouts that produce a unique ultrasonic frequency when struck by a tab attached to a moving object like a door or drawer. A single central microphone captures these inaudible pings and triggers automations, eliminating the need for individual batteries, radios, or circuit boards in each sensor. The system requires no machine learning, offers inherent privacy since ultrasound degrades within a meter or two and cannot pass through walls, and could theoretically support up to 1,300 distinct sensor identities. Current challenges include interference from ambient high-frequency noise and line-of-sight requirements for the microphone to detect signals.
