Energy harvesting sensor

1. An environmental energy harvesting sensor node, comprising:

an environmental energy harvesting sensor configured to extract environmental energy from an environmental external source at a rate proportional to a value of a first parameter of the environmental external source;

an energy storage device coupled to the environmental energy harvesting sensor and configured to store the extracted energy from the environmental energy harvesting sensor at the rate proportional to the value of the first parameter; and

a wireless transceiver coupled to the energy storage device and configured to wirelessly transmit plural frames of data with the extracted energy stored in the energy storage device, with each data transmission frame using all of the energy stored in the energy storage device, and with the period between the transmitted frames being proportional to the value of the first parameter.

2. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 1 , including trigger circuitry configured to, in response to the energy storage device storing a threshold level of energy, cause the transceiver to transmit one of the plurality of data transmission frames.

3. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 2 , in which the threshold level of energy corresponds with a minimum amount of energy needed to enable transmission of one of the plurality of data transmission frames.

4. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 1 , including a relay that includes an inductor and a switch, in which:

the environmental energy harvesting sensor is further configured to magnetize the inductor at the rate proportional to the value of the first parameter;

the switch is configured to open after a time that is proportional to the energy extracted by the environmental energy harvesting sensor;

the energy storage device is a capacitor configured to store the extracted energy in response to the switch opening; and

the transceiver including an antenna that is configured to receive a LC resonant frequency that is tuned to the antenna and generated by the inductor and the capacitor causing the antenna to transmit one of the plurality of data transmission frames.

5. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 4 , including a parameter sensor coupled to the capacitor, the parameter sensor configured to sense a second parameter of the environmental external source, in which the parameter sensor includes a variable capacitor configured to tune the LC resonant frequency of each frame proportional to a value of the second parameter.

6. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 5 , in which the energy storage device is a battery.

7. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 1 , in which the first parameter of the environmental external source is stress, strain, chemical potentials, ambient light, ambient infrared light, or temperature.

8. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 1 , in which the environmental energy harvesting sensor is a piezoelectric device, an electrochemical device, a solar device, or a thermoelectric generator.

9. The environmental energy harvesting sensor node of claim 5 , in which the plurality of data transmission frames are Bluetooth low energy (BLE) frames, WiFi frames, or low-rate wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN) frames.

10. A method comprising:

extracting, by an environmental energy harvesting sensor, environmental energy from an environmental external source at a rate proportional to a value of a first parameter of the environmental external source;

storing, by an energy storage device, the extracted environmental energy at the rate proportional to the value of the first parameter;

in response to the energy storage device storing a threshold level of energy a first time, transmitting, by a sensor node transceiver, a first data transmission frame utilizing the energy storage device to provide power to the sensor node transceiver thereby decreasing the energy stored in the energy storage device below the threshold level;

in response to the energy storage device storing the threshold level of energy a second time, transmitting a second data transmission frame with a time period between the start of the first data transmission frame and the start of the second data transmission frame being proportional to the value of the first parameter.

11. The method of claim 10 , including:

receiving, by a base station transceiver, the first and second data transmission frames; and

calculating, by a processor of the base station, a time period between receiving the first and the second data transmission.

12. The method of claim 11 , including, based on the time period between receiving the first and the second data transmission, determining, by the processor, the value of the first parameter.

13. The method of claim 10 , including:

sensing a second parameter from the environmental source; and

tuning an LC resonant frequency proportional to a value of the second parameter,

in which the first data transmission frame includes the LC resonant frequency.

14. The method of claim 13 , including:

receiving, by a base station transceiver, the first and second data transmission frames;

calculating, by a processor of the base station, a time period between receiving the first and the second data transmission and the LC resonant frequency;

based on the time period between receiving the first and second data transmission, determining the value of the first parameter; and

based on the LC resonant frequency, determining the value of the second parameter.

15. The method of claim 14 , in which the first parameter is temperature and the second parameter is pressure.

16. A system, comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive data transmission frames from a first environmental energy harvesting sensor node; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to calculate a time periodicity between the starts of the data transmission frames and determine a value of a first parameter of a first environmental external source based on the periodicity of the data transmission frames.

17. The system of claim 16 , in which the processor is further configured to calculate a LC resonant frequency of one of the data transmission frames and determine a value of a second parameter of the first environmental external source based on the LC resonant frequency.

18. The system of claim 16 , in which the first parameter is temperature and the second parameter is pressure.

19. The system of claim 16 , in which the processor is configured to calculate the periodicity of the data transmission frames by calculating the time between receiving a first data transmission frame and a second data transmission frame.

20. The system of claim 16 , in which:

the transceiver is further configured to receive second data transmission frames from a second environmental energy harvesting sensor node; and

the processor is further configured to calculate a periodicity of the second data transmission frames and determine a value of a parameter of the second environmental external source based on the frequency of the second data transmission frames.