The global Internet of Things (IoT) market is expected to grow 900% by 2025. This will encourage new companies to enter the market. Especially innovative start-ups, whose business model depends on the rapid market introduction of new IoT products, while they cannot assume the complexity and costs associated with the deployment of an IoT project. This is leading companies to consider open source platforms to develop their IoT products. This open source hardware allows them freedom of use, study, modification and distribution and redistribution. In addition, they are scalable for industrial use, portable and low-cost, guarantee security and privacy, and the revolution defined by open source software will similarly increase demand. A large part of any IoT device is Internet connectivity. This requires highly reliable wireless connectivity in moderate conditions that meets the stringent requirements of open source hardware cards. Fractus Antennas (NN) is a Spanish company of passionate entrepreneurs that designs, manufactures and markets miniature antennas for IoT, mobile connectivity and short-range wireless devices. Its team is a pioneer in the development of internal antennas for mobile phones and related handheld wireless devices. The innovative and disruptive solution devised by NN for the growing demand described above is Variant™, the first miniature multiband antenna designed to be used on open hardware IoT platforms. The features that Variant™ can boast are:1) its small size (10 times smaller antenna element than conventional antennas providing the same connectivity);2) the broad spectrum it covers (multiband operation) useful for 4G, 5G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, ISM, etc.;3) easy configuration thanks to the matching network which makes it easy to use in any device and any band without the need of designing a new antenna for each case;4) off-the-shelf so it is ready to be delivered ‘as is’ with no need for customization and 5) no manual assembly is needed.

Our solution is a novel antenna technology (called ‘Virtual Antenna’) that our company has invented and patented (40+ patents granted). Due to its non-resonant nature, our antenna yields numerous benefits when designing Internet of Things (IoT) devices: – the ‘Virtual Antenna’ can work at any frequency (ranging from 400 MHz to 10.6 GHz) and with any protocol (Wi-Fi, GPS, 4G, 5G, Bluetooth, and more), thus providing design versatility and scalability; – the ‘Virtual Antenna’ fits on tiny devices because it is about 10 times smaller than state-of-the-art resonant antennas; – while the design process of standard antennas requires numerous physical prototypes, the electromagnetic behavior of the 'Virtual Antenna’ can be accurately simulated via software, thus leading to shorter and cheaper design processes; – while resonant antennas can be designed only by electromagnetic experts, any electrical engineer or technology-savvy has the knowledge to use the ‘Virtual Antenna’ in an IoT product.

The EcoSentinel project envisions a groundbreaking transformation in our relationship with nature to address pressing global sustainability challenges as biosphere integrity degradation, fostering a harmonious coexistence between technological innovation and environmental conservation; culminating in a community of Ecological Sentinels (EcoSentinel). Specifically, EcoSentinel leverages the biological processes and the resilient nature of living plants to give them the necessary means (i.e., energy harvesting and electromagnetic signal propagation) to become self-sustained digital nodes of a network able to autonomously monitor themselves. This revolutionary approach aims to enhance our capacity to safeguard forests and other ecosystems. The EcoSentinel technology will introduce a carbon-negative wireless communication system, powered by the ecosystem itself, enabling environmental monitoring to prevent and mitigate critical events such as wildfires and biodiversity loss. The EcoSentinel project proposes a new form of plant-plant interaction by elevating it to a digital level. By enhancing plants’ interconnection through cybernetical implants, we embark on a path to digitally transform the greenery. This unprecedented approach aims to establish a novel wireless plant-based communication system, using plants as natural antennas, uniquely powered by the integration of plant-microbial electricity generation seamlessly blended into the vegetation.