Energous and SATO Partner to Develop Wirelessly Powered In-store Retail IoT Applications for Tomorrow

Energous Corporation (NASDAQ: WATT), a leading developer of wireless power networks, and SATO Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 6287), a global pioneer in auto-ID and labelling solutions, today announced a partnership to develop joint solutions that combine Energous’ 1W WattUp PowerBridge transmitters with IoT solutions for next-generation smart store applications.

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1W WattUp PowerBridge for Wiliot IoT Pixels (Graphic: Business Wire)

Through this joint development, the two aim to realize wireless powering of Wiliot IoT Pixel sensor tags from a distance of 5m to a maximum of 10m for asset management and inventory management solutions in stores and warehouses that SATO is building.

IoT Pixels are small Bluetooth Low Energy tags with sensors for humidity, proximity, temperature, etc. Multiple tags that receive data from an Energous transmitter initiate data communication, with the transmitter also acting as a bridge, intelligently filtering data from the tags and relaying it to the cloud. By attaching IoT Pixels to individual products and special fixtures placed on product shelves, retailers can monitor the quantity and condition of products in real time without any manual checks.

Retail applications using Energous transmitters and IoT Pixel tags will be demonstrated at NRF 2023, the National Retail Federation’s flagship event, in New York City January 15-17 at the SATO booth (#4265).

“Retail adoption of internet-connected devices such as Bluetooth tags and asset trackers continues to rise, bringing challenges around how to power them reliably and consistently, especially in large-scale deployments that feature thousands of devices,” said Cesar Johnston, CEO of Energous. “This partnership combines our RF-based wireless power transmitter technology with SATO’s tagging solutions to deliver power over the air at-a-distance to Wiliot IoT Pixel tags in retail settings, solving this challenge. We look forward to showcasing this technology at NRF in January and invite you to see it yourself.”

“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Energous, a trailblazer in the development of wireless powering of IoT devices across multiple applications,” said Kazuya Hirata, head of the T4S Business Lab at SATO Holdings Corporation. “The combination of SATO’s retail tagging hardware and software expertise, Energous’ WattUp wireless charging technology and Wiliot’s battery-free IoT Pixel tags can help usher in the next-generation retail store and smarter shopping experiences by taking a totally different approach to visualizing inventory.”