It’s unlikely that you know anyone who doesn’t get online at least once per day. In fact, most of the people you know have been online for many hours today. The internet is part of everything we do now, and we aren’t the only ones using it. For every person that’s online, there are thousands of devices connecting to the Internet. It seems like everything talks to the Internet now; fridges, lamps, cars, watches, you name it.
We work with batteries every day and we can tell you that they are everywhere. There are the batteries you use every day like the AA batteries in your TV’s remote control, and then there’s the 9v battery in your smoke detector that you forget about until it wakes you up at three in the morning with its piercing siren. There’s the lithium battery in your smartphone and your tablet that you think about all day long, but then there’s the “car style” lead acid battery in your riding lawn mower or electric generator that you only use every so often.
There are also many batteries you never think about at all. You may not even know that there’s a small lead acid battery in emergency hallway lights in schools and hospitals that only turn on when the power goes out. Surprisingly, most people don’t think about the battery in their car until it’s dead and the engine won’t start.
Many these forgotten batteries that aren’t maintained with a battery charger will lose their charge and might not work when they are needed. That’s why we’re taking batteries and we’re hooking them up to the Internet. We’ve created a battery monitor that allows batteries to connect to the Internet and let you know how they are doing. This is an important step forward in the evolution of batteries because there is very little information about how people use batteries or how well they perform. Most of our data deals with the number of batteries that are produced and sales figures. This doesn’t tell us anything about the time after they are sold and when they are thrown out.
IoT (Internet of Things) technology is still in its infancy but we’re already able to have a battery report its state of charge and alert you when it isn’t performing as well as it should.
We believe that a connected battery will have many benefits for people and businesses. Knowing more about batteries will drive innovation. Batteries will last longer and there will be less waste. This means that manufacturers will produce better products and consumers will save money.
We’re working to solve real problems with our connected products. Imagine a morning where your car won’t start because a light was left on and it depleted your battery; you can’t start your engine and get to work. A dead battery means a dead devices or vehicle. “If you can’t start it, you can’t use it.” That situation becomes virtually impossible when your battery can send you a message to let you know it’s in trouble.
Our battery monitoring technology is currently able to test a battery’s voltage and warn you if your battery isn’t performing as well as it should. The alert sent to your iOS or Android device will give you a chance to have your battery tested before it fails.
In time, we want our battery monitors to accurately predict a battery failure days or weeks ahead of a problem. You will be able to have your battery replaced long before you get stuck without a working vehicle because of a dead battery. That’s what we’re working towards and that’s the reason why this technology is revolutionary.