Dracula Technologies and CoolR recently announced their collaboration, demonstrating the effectiveness of energy harvesting in retail and inventory management. By ensuring uninterrupted operation and reducing the need for battery replacements, Dracula Technologies’ OPV energy harvesting solution improves the efficiency, sustainability, and reliability of AI-powered coolers and freezers at the PoS.
Energy Harvesting for Retail Coolers and Freezers
Dracula Technologies' LAYER technology ensures uninterrupted operation of AI-powered sensors in refrigerated vending machines. Cool-R, a U.S.-based startup, has integrated this organic photovoltaic (OPV) energy harvesting solution into its camera system to prevent power failures and reduce maintenance all the while being environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
AI-Driven inventory monitoring
CoolR’s AI-powered camera system “VistaZ” is a wire-free cellular camera that tracks products inside refrigerators and freezers. Mounted onto the fridge’s door, it captures images of the interiorto assess what has been removed or restocked. This data is processed and transmitted to a cloud-based application, enabling accurate inventory management for major beverage brands like Unilever and Heineken.
Challenge: ensuring continuous power supply
One of the primary challenges for CoolR was maintaining a reliable power supply for its AI-driven camera system. If the battery fails, inventory tracking stops, leading to stock discrepancies, empty assets, and revenue losses. Frequent battery replacements were not a viable solution due to logistical costs and operational downtime.
A Hybrid Solution: Energy Harvesting and Batteries
To overcome this issue, Cool-R integrated Dracula Technologies' LAYER solution. The system now harvests ambient light around the PoS assets and converts it into energy, which recharges a secondary lithium battery. This approach eliminates the need for manual battery replacements, ensuring continuous and maintenance-free operation.
A Reliable Asset Management Solution
CoolR’s solution has been deployed in over 50,000 smart coolers and freezersacross the world. The adoption of Dracula Technologies’ energy harvesting system enhances the reliability and sustainability of this network, reducing the environmental impact associated with disposable batteries.
This solution tackles a real-world challenge for CoolR and its enterprise customers, iacross a huge range of trade segments where these smart assets are located.
Brief interview with Roelof Koopmans
1. Beyond retail PoS assets, where else can the OPV solution be applied?
Roelof Koopmans: Our OPV technology is highly scalable and can be integrated into various IoT applications. It is particularly useful for smart building sensors, remote controls, and automated checkout systems—devices that require reliable, maintenance-free power sources. Since these applications often operate indoors or in low-light conditions, our energy-harvesting solution ensures continuous functionality without the need for frequent battery replacements.
2. How does your OPV technology compare to traditional photovoltaic cells?
Roelof Koopmans: Unlike conventional silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) cells, which perform best in direct sunlight, our OPV technology is optimized for indoor and low-light environments. It efficiently converts artificial and ambient light into usable energy, making it ideal for smart homes, retail, and industrial applications where consistent power supply is essential but sunlight is limited.
