Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Magnets To Replace Bluetooth?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the but-i-just-got-my-bluetooth-stuff dept.

aceat64 writes "News.com is carrying a story that suggests magnets could eventually replace Bluetooth as a cheaper and more energy effiect wireless solution. The concept of magnetic induction isn't new, but Aura has managed to shrink the technology onto a single chip. The first device to be made using the technology is a wireless headset that will cost between $60 and $80."

8 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Replace bluetooth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Talk about lack of ambition.

  2. YES! by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is JUST what we need! A bunch of wild magnetic fields around our electrical equipment! I can't wait to get an adapter for my computer, there's space in the case right next to my hard drive...

    -- Dr. Eldarion --

  3. Induction by polyp2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Correct me if i'm wrong but dont most Radio transmission technologies use some form of magnetic induction in order to achieve their goal. Last i heard passing electricity through a coil produces a magnetic field. Whats new here?

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
    1. Re:Induction by azaris · · Score: 5, Informative

      Correct me if i'm wrong but dont most Radio transmission technologies use some form of magnetic induction in order to achieve their goal.

      The point is using magnetic fields and mutual inductance rather than electromagnetic radiation to transfer information wirelessly.

      Last i heard passing electricity through a coil produces a magnetic field.

      More precisely, passing an alternating current through any conductor will produce a magnetic field. This magnetic field in turn will create a current in another conductor some distance away (the article sites four feet as the maximum distance) which can be used to observer the original signal.

      It's an old concept, but since magnetic fields created by normal AC powers are pretty weak it's not really that useful. Apparently they've managed a very-high frequency (the effect is proportional to the change in current) alternating current in a chip small enough to make this possible.

  4. AT least it'll keep the loonies happy by rde · · Score: 5, Funny

    So the hapless doofi who've spent years thinking a) magnets can heal them and b) phones can give them cancer must be delighted with this new headset; it'll fix those brain tumours right up.

    D'you think it's coincidence that the company who came up with this is called Aura?

  5. Eh? by BJH · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can you replace a technology that nobody actually *uses*?

  6. Child Labour? by nih · · Score: 5, Funny

    'At the heart of the new interest in what's known as "magnetic induction" is Aura, or so claims the nine-year-old chipmaker'

    quick, somebody stop these fiends!

    --
    I'm a rabbit startled by the headlights of life :(
  7. Good GOD, man! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I really hope you're just trying to be funny and doing a poor job of it, but in case you're serious...

    I keep waiting for a gas pump that "recognizes" my gasoline credit card device and waits for me to "fill it up."

    Uh, hate to break it to you, but those have been around since the mid to late 90's, when Mobil introduced the SpeedPass. I've had one since long before I ever heard of Bluetooth. Now they are used at Exxon and Mobil stations all over the place. I think McDonald's even did testing a while back in California, IIRC, where people could pay for their drive-thru purchases via SpeedPass-- dunno if that's going to go national. When they launched it, it came in two varieties-- a small cylinder for your keyring that must be waved in front of a spot on the pump, and a transponder meant to be stuck inside your car's window that is "read" by an overhanging antenna when the car first pulls up to the pump (sort of like the E-Z Pass system some states have for toll roads). I think the stick-on transponder SpeedPass has been phased out, because I see no reference to it on the website.

    Have a hard time getting a paper receipt, though. Keep getting a message saying "Your receipt is inside."

    Where I live, gas pumps have been accepting credit cards right at the pump for at least 10 years, and have been printing their own receipts right at the pump as well. My SpeedPass account is even configured to assume I want a receipt when I gas up, so the pump just spits one out without asking when I'm done filling my tank.

    I won't even tell you what I can do with my Macs running OS X and my Bluetooth phone, it may make your head explode. No flying cars yet, though.

    I suggest you move to a state where people aren't too busy dating their relatives to embrace technological advances. By the way, the North won.