Illustrative examples include a system for coupling a first electronic device to a second electronic device. The first electronic device may include a housing having a first engagement surface and a first magnet array. The first engagement surface may be adapted to receive the second electronic device. The second electronic device may include a second magnet array. An actuator coupled to the first magnet array may move the first magnet array relative to the housing and the second magnetic array, to attractively couple or repulsively de-couple the second electronic device from the first electronic device.

Apparatus, systems and methods employing contact lens sensors are provided. In some aspects, a contact lens includes a substrate that forms at least a portion of the body of the contact lens; an optical communication device disposed on or within the substrate; and a photodetector disposed on or within the substrate, wherein the photodetector harvests light emitted from a device and generates power from the harvested light. In some aspects, an apparatus comprises a tag having a circuit including: an optical communication device; and a photodetector that harvests light received and generates power from the harvested light. The tag can be disposed on or within a contact lens in various aspects.

Described herein are architectures, platforms and methods for dynamic amplification/boosting of near field communications (NFC) antenna transmission power in a device during NFC related functions that require increase in an NFC antenna transmission power such as a payment transaction. For example, to comply with Europay MasterCard and Visa (EMVco) standards with regard to higher NFC antenna transmission power during the EMVco transactions, the NFC antenna transmission power may be dynamically controlled to maximize efficiency of a battery/power supply of the device.

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatuses for loading program data on to an unpowered electronic device, such as an RFID tag that includes volatile memory. Initially, the tag is unpowered. Thus, the volatile memory in the tag will not have any stored data. In order to load data into the memory of the tag, a reader can power the tag wirelessly. The reader includes an antenna configured to transmit electromagnetic radiation and receive backscatter electromagnetic radiation. The reader also includes a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to analyze the backscatter electromagnetic radiation. The processing unit may analyze the backscatter radiation to determine a supply voltage induced in the tag. In response to the induced voltage being greater than a threshold, the processing unit may alter the transmitted electromagnetic radiation to communicate tag data.

An antenna comprises: a first terminal; a second terminal; and a winding, having an inductance, comprising a plurality of turns and connected between the first and second terminals such that a change in magnetic flux linking the winding generates a corresponding voltage between said terminals. The winding comprises a conductive element connected to the first and second terminals and extending around said turns from the first terminal to the second terminal and having a thickness not exceeding Xμm along a length of the conductive element from the first to the second terminal and a width not exceeding Xμm along said length, where X is less than or equal to 10, whereby said conductive element is substantially non-visible to a naked human eye.

There is provided a communication apparatus comprising an antenna. A communication unit is able to use external power that is generated by receiving a signal from an external apparatus via the antenna, thereby transmitting a response to the signal that is received from the external apparatus to the external apparatus. A deactivation unit deactivates, in a case where the external power is generated by receiving the signal from the external apparatus via the antenna, supply of the external power from the antenna to the communication unit. A control unit performs control so as to interrupt deactivation of supply of the external power from the antenna to the communication unit by the deactivation unit.

This disclosure describes techniques for operating an inductive coupling reader. The techniques include operations comprising: applying an excitation frequency to a resonance circuit of the inductive coupling reader; detecting a change to a resonance frequency of the resonance circuit of the inductive coupling reader; and in response to detecting the change to the resonance frequency of the inductive coupling reader, adjusting the excitation frequency being applied to the resonance circuit.

Disclosed are methods, systems and devices for allocating a power signal. In one particular implementation, a reader device may exchange messages with one more transponder devices to determine an allocation of a power signal. For example, one or more transponder devices may provide one or more messages in a downlink signal indicative of a requested signal up time.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, an intelligent tracking system is disclosed. The intelligent tracking system includes one or more passive tracking devices, an exciter, and a tracker. Each passive tracking device includes one or more transceivers and is energized by an electromagnetic frequency. In response to being energized each passive tracking device transmits a short message. The exciter emits the electromagnetic frequency. The tracker receives short messages from the one or more passive tracking devices and confirms the presence of the one or more passive tracking devices in a vicinity of the tracker based on the received messages.

A method for streaming sensor data from a set of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags includes determining an initial communication approach to be performed with respect to each RFID tag. The method also includes managing access to the RFID tag by refining the initial communication approach based on records of successes and failures of the initial communication approach. A radio-frequency identification (RFID) system is also disclosed, the system comprising one or more processors and a memory system comprising one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, causes the system to perform operations for streaming sensor data from one or more RFID tags to one or more RFID readers.