This is the promise of the near future: all of your gadgets — from your smartphone to your fridge — will be able to talk to each other, wirelessly communicating whether youre around or not. Were almost there, but a new device from Stanford and University of California, Berkeley, professors may speed things along. No external power required The tiny chips, which are powered by harvesting radio signals and dont require external power, are small enough to fit on gadgets in your home, but still powerful enough to send and receive transmissions.