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Wireless Power Recharging Nears Fruition
AlexanderT writes "Mobileread.com is reporting that wireless power recharging of mobile devices may become commercially available by the end of this year. Various recently filed patents by Cambridge UK-based Splashpower Ltd. indicate how close the company is in realizing this technology."
Don't get in the way of that wireless recharger...
Bah, Tesla did it ages ago.
Wanna get nasty? - DaNasty
Stuff like this was always on StarTrek and I thought, no way, but now, that's amazing.
When I saw the title about wireless charging, RF (Radio Frequency) came to mind.
Then I RTFA (Articles / Advertisements) and realized that they are in fact talking about inductive coupling.
Inductive charging cradles have been used by Sonicare® for several years to charge their cordless toothbrushes.
It pretty cool anyway!
All the worlds indeed a
FP!
FFP Excellent for people who overuse their cell phones
Didn't Nikola Tesla work on remote power transmission way back when? I thought I remembered seeing info about this in the back of old Popular Science magazines when I was a kid.
Cool candle-shaped lights. They recharge when they sit on their base station but it's not a direct electrical contact.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5cf5/
At first I read the summary and freaked.
Wireless Power!
My mind raced witht the possible applications...this lasted 1/2 of a second. Then I stopped writing new sci-fi reality in my mind, read the company's website. It's really cool but has no where near the applications of TRUE wireless power.
Too bad Douglas Adams didn't live up to see this, he would surely have liked this
How is this wireless charging, if you need to place the object on a specific pad ?
Sure, there's no actual wire connection to your phone - but it's not like you can just walk around within N feet of some 'emitter' and the phone will charge.
That specific pad still has to plug in somewhere.
And that pad is larger than any travel adapter for a mobile phone - so you won't be taking one with you anytime, which means you'd have to rely on one being present wherever you decide to go ? I don't think so.
And these plates have been around for years. It's called induction charging.
The only place where I might just see it happening is in airports - but given that most devices will not work with this pad, but will still work with a regular charger, I don't see any airport opting to do away with their regular sockets and getting these plates instead.
yup and I have info that will work to blow up their patents from 1989 when I designed the charging pad for my last classes in EE.
unless they fould a way to make them less dangerous to magnetic media, they certianly do nto have anything patentable.
Isn't this going to be a horribly innefficient use of power? Instead of directing current directly to the place it needs to be you are blasting unused energy into space.
If this gets popular, say every cell phone uses one of these, what is the total wasted energy? I bet it's huge.
In other news, cancer rates in the greater Cambridge area have jumped to epidemic proportions....
has been /.'ed.
Its funny, laugh.
I've seen this company make this announcement before. And before that, there was the statement that major cellular manufacturers including Nokia and Motorola were interested in the technology. Yeah, no duh, they'd be interested, but the company played it up as though they'd signed contracts to have the tech included in their products, which was definitely not the case. And the graphic images that are being shown haven't changed in about 18 months, at the very least. Show us a working prototype at some conference and I'll kiss whoever built it, but for now I don't believe this company will ever produce a product. They have a great idea, but I don't believe they know how to make it a reality.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
The Quiet Earth. That whole mess started with a large scale wireless power initiative.
On the bright side, anyone who dies at the exact moment this stuff is deployed can look forward to an existance happily unmarred by traffic jams, cell phones in theatres, and income taxes.
Cheers
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
I've had my electric toothbrush that charges without contact for years. It's not very special. It's just a magnetic field that works like the two parts of a transformer.
My cordless Panasonic shaver charges the same way as those electric tooth brushes. Why is this even news? *sigh*
Life is not for the lazy.
You mean like my 10 year old shaver and 15 year old electric tooth brush?
Gee whiz, replacing a wall-wart with something ten times larger and more obnoxious to try and pack. Oh boy!
I suspect their grand plan is to make these places omnipresent- hotels, airplane lunch trays/armwrests etc....but it's a classic chicken/egg problem. What manufacturer will bother licensing something like this for their device if there's nowhere to charge it...and what airline/hotel/airport will spend the money to buy and install these plates if there are no devices to use them?
Please help metamoderate.
"True" wireless power is not all it's cracked up to be. To do it, you'd either have to a) spew power all over the place, a la Tesla, or b) use a focused beam and send it directly at the device. The first option is a tremendous waste of energy, and the second would probably be unreliable (as well as cancer-causing).
Link to ABB press release
I've actually seen one of those demoed in reality. Quite interesting seeing a sensor, not connected to anything, giving of useful information to a control system...
Isn't this how the Sonicare toothbrush recharges?
I always wondered how that stupid toothbrush did that...I must have looked at the base of that thing for 20 minutes. Guess I should have used the internet to look it up. I kept wondering...How do they keep the contacts from corroding..no contacts. I just never looked into it further. Thanks!
/-McK
My electric toothbrush has "wireless" charging. It works simply by deviding two two coils of a transformer into two parts, one in the base stand and the other in the toothbrush. Simple and relatively efficient. =)
I have countless wall-warts trying to provide various flavours of low voltage stuff to charge / power my electronic gear. I have things that have identical connectors that provide dangerously different voltages. So, having a wireless charging mat you could just drop your mobile phone on is great; it would be far greater if the technology is sensibly licenced, for instance, the charging equipment could be patented, with royalty fees payable to the inventor (what is this? someone on Slashdot extolling the virtues of patents?).. But the receiving equipment could be royalty free, or maybe even subsidised. This would mean that, for instance, Nokia phones might be able to charge with the same transmitting equipment as a Motorola walkie-talkie, as a Garmin GPS, as a no-named chinese portable DVD player. .. but providing the wireless charging was OPTIONAL, this wouldn't be a problem - you could still charge all the above equipment using traditional ugly wall-warts, but you could also charge with the standard wireless equipment.
The inventor could then sell funky wireless recharding pads to the end users, maybe at a premium price, because you'd only need one (or maybe two - one for the home, one for the office). You're paying for the incredible convenience of it all; in much the same way as mobile phone users tend to have to put up with phone rates an order of magnitude higher than fixed line phoned - they are paying for the convenience of it.
omg, we created this wireless power recharging for all your wireless devices! no wires attached!
the catch? you have to plug your phone to a adapter that plugs itself to a recharger plugged in the damn wall.
Magnetic induction charging has been around for a while, as one of the commenters on the article mentions. My SoniCare electric toothbrush recharges that way, although it does have to sit in its charging stand to do it. The SplashPower product seems like a better package, especially the ability to charge multiple devices. The article is short on technical details. I wonder if the obstacle to charging cellphones and other data-carrying devices has been protecting the memory from the magnetic field?
Don't forget that in these kind of reecharging systems the devices need to be almost touching the charging unit.
don't we already have something similar... sonic toothbrushes charge "without wires" technically. Anyhow, when they first announced this about 2 years ago, they were hypothesizing that the technology would flow or integrate into furniture construction. This would be pretty cool since it would allow you to just put whatever you want on your desk, kitchen counter and simply have it powered. intstead of using a "charging station" your entire worksurface would be able to charge. This is awesome stuff.
He who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not, is a slave. - William Drummond
The header caught my attention, but after RTFA I tend to concur with many fellow slashdotters that this is obsolete even before its invented.
Induction has been used before to charge electrical devices that didn't allow for bear metal contacts due to water hazard for years. Toothbrushes are the clearest example.
But for anything else I fail to see the point.
Their ad campaign could claim "Wake up in the morning feeling really recharged!!" :P
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
There are already several products on the market that utilize inductive charging. For example, electric toothbrushes have used inductive charging for years.
The charging pad acts like the primary winding of a transformer. The power receiver serves as the secondary, along with the necessary rectifier, filter, voltage regulator, etc. You're still constrained to keeping your phone in one place during charging - you just don't have to physically plug it in.
The biggest drawback would be the size / weight penalty of adding a power receiver to every handheld device, and making the energy transfer efficient enough to permit reasonably short charging times. I'm not optimistic that this can be made practical for cellphones, PDAs, and the like, where low weight and small size are so critical.
I think the point here is a technology that is transferable to generic devices. Tesla came up with his coil, inductance has been around for quite a long time as also the used of inductance speakers a-la phone test equipment.
There was the example of sonicare and their plugable toothbrush. They are looking for doing that with their mobile phones. Like any technology and standards, you have to find how to do this,(inductance) where to use it( rechargeable batteries), how to make it work(toothbrush and mobile phones) and finally, who is going to buy the thing (ohh marketing rears its ugly head).
As a comparison, think about html. Way before, the runoff text editor was doing this. OK, maybe bad example as people may not be able to relate to this, how about the old WordPerfect dos word processor. The meta character idea was being used there way before, just accept the idea.
I mean, there have been times I left for a weekend to visit my family and realize I needed to recharge the mobile. Of course no one has the same recharger so it goes dead unless I leave the phone out in the car as I do have a charger in the car.
The next point is to standardize the charger themselves. Give me that ISO 52542345/RS52634/or what not for this, and I think that is one of the most useful parts of this.
Another use would to have these recharge stations in one of those Internet shops or something. Since you are getting charged to be online, maybe offer to recharge the mobile while your surf. Something like that would be a boom for travellers too as then the dc charge for their mobiles need will be done and they wouldnt have to work about the different voltages out in the world.
And finnally, since we have standardize the plug, you can charge your mobile, shavers, toothbrush and favorite rechargeable toy, as long as they are recharger compliant. Sounds easy, and would make thing more convienent.
j/k, i have a fucking rats nest under the desk, my feet are trapped in the knots
That is, for those of us who still have magnetic media arround like tapes and floppys (renember those)
I saw a splashpad charing a couple of mobile phone batteries and gadgets when they were at a recruitment fair in Cambridge last year.
It's a very cool technology, impressively charging multiple devices on the pad at the same time. The product I observed seemed pretty advanced, I wonder what the holdup is in releasing it?
-- Mike
how many times does Cowher have to go down in flames in the playoffs for you guys to see the light? pats, baby.
From what i gather, this is inductive power transmission and limited by distance. ...
Well, theres another kind: microwave transmission, which is also a demonstrated technology. Theorethically, we could beam power to any distance with it
At one point, Mitshubishi was planning on deployment of sattellite system that would have beamed microwave power to portable devices. SolarBird . They still list a launch date of 2005 but
Heres a Space Solar Power Monitor, a site that keeps tabs on whats happening on WPT front.
Btw, here's a Wikipedia page on microwave tranmission
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Yeah, I had one of those brushes... It lasted about 1 year. After that, the battery wouldn't hold a charge anymore. In an effort to see if I could replace the battery (like I have on my rechargeable razors), I broke it open. It's just a coil of wire on the bottom of the brush. There wasn't even a LOT of wire, so it probably didn't provide too much current.
BTW: I wasn't able to replace the battery without destroying the brush. Worthless.
First, the article makes it sound like these charging pads are going to be lying around everywhere (airports, coffee shops...). There have already been articles about businesses viewing "power leeching" as a problem. What's going to change these people's minds?
Second, this gave me a chuckle:
A series of recently filed patents may indicate that Slashpower technology is finally ready to march.
Apparently the author lives someplace where filing patents means something tangible!
Hmm... Now this might be an interesting way to leech power off of someone like in an apartment building.
This should be the default, not an afterthought!
Living in one of the world's academic centres means you have a considerable chance of death from scientific-experiment-gone-wrong. Hell, last year it started raining top hats and crumpets in Idaho after a scientist tried to try to transfer one small, unboiled egg through an electric cable.
I guess splashpower.com has drowned after /. splashed water all over it :))
Striving to be common...
How likely will it be that my ipod in my pocket will be partially erased when I get it near the magnetic induction to charge wireless devices? Does anyone know the science on this one - how vulnerable are memory sticks, ipods, and the like, to low level magnetic fields? How small a magnetic field are we talking about here?
now lets assume you're a geek
:) :)
You know when a coronal mass ejection happens pointing towards earth the rapidly changing magnetic field of earth causes voltage differences in powerline grids
now how much is 1+1
took me less than 10 seconds to figure out how the toothbrush works - aurora borealis baby
Some farmer did that decades ago.
The cake is a pie
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arn
as you can see, you can already charge your wireless mouse in a wireless way
they filled patents for that ! wow
The problem with inductive coupling is that it requires a fairly strong magnetic field to work well. And we all know what magnetic fields do to things like floppy disks and hard drives...
Though I'm no physicist, it seems to me the magnetic flux required to get a usable inductive transfer would also be strong enough to erase data from a laptop hard drive or nearby floppy. Even if it doesn't erase data, the presence of a strong magnetic field could have a negative effect on the useful life of a hard drive.
A simpler, easier solution would be just to integrate the laptop's power supply into the unit itself, so you could recharge the laptop with an ordinary extension cord. Why bother lugging around a laptop and power brick when it could be integrated into the unit?
But otherwise, it sounds pretty cool. It would definitely be an improvement for things such as PDA's and cell phones.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
what nimrod modded this informative?
If you drive the primary coil with a very spiky signal, you get max. dv/dt. That means effectively that you don't need a core. You can couple a decent amount of power at a range of a half inch or so. Look at the charging circuit on your toothbrush. You will most likely find something like a 555 timer. (I had a couple of students implement this as part of a project about seven years ago.)
Another example of such power transfer is rfid chips. In that case, the transfer takes place over a range of feet. The bottom line is that the technology isn't very radical.
On the other hand, the idea of some kind of standard interface for charging batteries is huge. As I sit here, I see approx. a zillion battery chargers. They infest my bookshelf. Everything I own has a different battery charger. Being able to set three cell phones, PDAs and digital camera on a pad to charge is a very welcome idea. It would sure clean up the mess of wires and wall warts that I see before me.
..this time its Patented!
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
How would the charging times of wireless chargers compare to those of wired ones? (I gather that it would take longer to charge something, but how much longer?)
My Braun toothbrush and Panasonic shaver both have such cradles as well. All inductuve, no metal contacts anywhere.
This is not new.
No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
Inductive coupling is not the same as the huge Tesla coils
0 18 &cid=11448484
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=137
Yeah, I've got one of those, too -- a brilliant way to keep rechargable components safe in a moist bathroom environment.
A friend of mine did a year abroad during college, and went to Japan. When he got back, he showed me the cell phone he had in Japan (didn't work with US systems, of course) and it was literally the size of my first two fingers. The phone was all one piece, with an internal unremovable battery. It had a specialized cradle (much like the sonicare cradle) and it recharged without contacts, by induction.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
That's exactly what they did, according to the now-slashdotted site. They also found a way to make the receiver less than a millimeter thick and moldable to conform to any shape.
Patentable? That's for you to decide.
This technology plus longer-lasting batteries could lead to advances such as an entirely internal implant, something that I think many, many cochlear impant users would welcome as it would be another step closer to removing a visible distinction between deaf and hearing people.
It's not just this specific instance, either - think beyond the cell phones and laptops you have to recharge now. Perhaps hybrid/electric cars could use larger versions of these - when you pay for a parking space, you also pay for a recharge. Those parking spaces themselves could also be powered/charged by the newly-developed solar cells.
So while it may seem large and inefficient at first sight, it could lead to some very interesting secondary developments down the road.
http://www.tenjou.net/
They were talking big about this thing in 2001/2002. It's been vaporware for years, because they haven't found anyone to actually fund and manufacture the things. A couple of prototypes is nice, and a few c|net and CNN mentions is nice, but it's not on my desk right now, three years later.
[
Hmmm.. let's take energy transmitted on one wavelength and use an oscillator to convert it to energy of another wavelength.
It starts with photosynthesis...
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
When I read the title, I immediately thought back to when I first saw this site for making a wirelessly recharging wireless mouse. You just need to add MORE POWAH. Yes, it is an inductive wireless mouse charger.
MacroHard - Boning you in a big way! (TM)
So will we be seeing this in the "services" section of OSTG sometime soon? LA electric grid loses juice due to the overwhelming slashpower effect
I can not RTFA even if i wanted to, unless i can find a mirror :P But by the sound of it, all they are doing is generating an magnetic field to let the battery charge.
My toothbrush, a braun Proffesional care, allready does this. It is completely water proof, but yet when i stick it on the charger it charges. There are no connectors or anything.
So why is this new?
cat
err... correct me if I'm wrong on this, but previous commercial applications based on this property were soley used for specific proprietry devices. What is unique and news worthy about this application is that it will be a standard in the same way that firewire and blue tooth are... i.e. you will be about to buy devices from diffrent manufacturers that are all inter compatable, so your mobile (cell) phone that requires 3.8v to rechange will charge on the same pad that your PDA that needs 12v. I beileve the ultimate extension of this would be that the entire surface of your desk acts as a pad, and anything you place upon it that uses batteries will recarge istself. The fact that i won't have to carry 20 diffrent powerpacks will be the major benifit to myself. the fact that my desk at home is a little less cluttered with recahrging cables.
We have two standards now, the big, dumb 12V cigarette lighter outlet, and the ARINC 628 connector found at aircraft seats. The latter has more of a future.
More ground-based stuff for ARINC 628 would be useful. Many laptops will already recharge from it. It is intended for consumer environments, protected against overload, and has a rugged connector. There are even pins for a data connection. But nobody seems to sell a desktop power supply with an ARINC 628 outlet.
They generally make these things as cheap as possible, which usually means it's impossible to even get it open without damaging or destroying it. Besides, they'd rather you buy a new one than replace the old battery.
BTW, the battery was probably destroyed by constant overcharging. With anything that has a NiCd or NiMH battery and doesn't have a smart peak charger, it's usually best to let it charge, then don't charge it again until the battery is almost dead. Leaving things in the charging cradle 24/7 is a great way to ruin the batteries over time.
(Note that most laptops, PDAs, cell phones, etc. use LiPo or LiIon cells, and these require smarter chargers anyways, or they do bad things like explode or catch fire. So these you can leave plugged in all the time and it's OK. And some things with NiCd or NiMH cells do come with peak chargers (especially high end power tools) and with those it's OK too, because the charger knows when to stop charging.)
Mine's lasted for over two years and is fine. I can take it on the road and get 10-12 brushes without the recharger. YMMV.
If you actually do the math to determine how much force on your DNA is provided by these ridiculously high EMF fields at a distance, you see that indeed the force is negligible. I'm talking orders of magnitude below that needed to overcome the phosphodiester bond strength. The notion that EMF from power stations, etc., causes cancer is both under debate and not commonly accepted in the science community.
The host is /.'ed and the article is not readable, but it is very likely this will utilize 2.4 GHz/ 5 GHz band and we will have another source of "noise" source.
I use my Braun toothbrush charged inductively for 2 years now. It works just great. All I have to do is completly discharge it twice a year.
;)
BTW: it's European product
Electric gars (GM's EV1 amongst them) use inductive charging.
Inductive charging is just creating an air-core transformer. The primary coil is in the charger, the secondary in the thing being charged.
You can charge big things (like cars), and the efficiency isn't too bad. The coupling itself is like 70% efficient or something. The conversion to the proper frequency AC for the coupling can take another 20% or so. This may seem horrible, but normal AC->DC recification (wall warts/laptop power supplies) is only 30-80% efficient too (depending on the design).
I still think this is stupid. It'd be better to make a standardized charging connector than use inductive charging.
Also note that the EMF from this is exactly the same stuff people are afraid of when they don't want to live near power lines. I'm not saying they're right, but customer concern might go haywire here.
People have already pointed out the sonicare toothbrush, but this is also used for the Abiocor artificial heart. Especially in the case of something embedded in your body, it's much better to have a system that does not require electrodes sticking out of your skin! And while a toothbrush may fit in your pocket, I'd wager a replacement heart qualifies more as a true mobile device!
Mine has been working fine for years. Not only do I use it, but my wife and two of our three kids use it. My third child is only 1-1/2 YO so he's still getting the hang of the non-electric version, but that Braun will work just fine for him. Our original brush cost US$50, and I've seen them in the store for US$20 that now have a two-minute timer. You probably throw away $20 on a weekly basis, so what is $20 annually even if you were to somehow mess up the new one in a year's time?
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Funny how Tesla's work finally comes back around.
Transformers aren't just a matter of "lots of electricity running through a coil" - it is alternating current in a coil inducing alternating current in another properly positioned coil. It doesn't have to be "a lot" of electricity. As the magnetic field collapses it produces current, and the alternating current produces a continuing collapsing field.
Transformers are very efficient at transferring power - your house is powered by a transformer taking power from the main line. What he's probably thinking of is the fact that transformers can change the voltage from the source to the target coil. So you may have e.g. 1000 volts in your powered coil and end up with 50 volts in the target coil, but voltage is not power - wattage is power, which is voltage times amperage. Again, transformers are effective at tranferring power.
Lots of studies suggest that some EM fields cause cancer, but I've never heard of any strong correlation as he suggests.
Given the total lack of correct information in the rest of the post, I doubt anything he has to say about the efficiency or dangers of Tesla's techniques.
The problems with the sonicare brush not retaining charge has absolutely nothing to do with inherent flaws in the wireless charging concept. Sonicare just choose to have a battery type that's shitty at retaining charge. Cell phone batteries do not have this problem.
I have my bicycle lights for quite some time now (8 years?) and they still work up to today. I've looked at them and there doesn't seem to be a contact between the lights and the place they are mounted on. There also doesn't seem to be a place to change batteries. They do provide enough light so that others can see me, but not so much that I can view a lot of my surroundings.
Anyway, maybe they use wireless powertransmission.
LOL :)
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/16/19 40214&tid=126&tid=4&tid=14
Contactless Electrical Current Transfer?
Technology
Science
Posted by Cliff on Fri Apr 16, '04 08:17 PM
from the keep-your-hands-and-feet-away dept.
ferralis (Not an EE) asks: "Recently I've come up with a design for a very fun toy (to be unveiled later if I'm successful). What's missing is a means to send electrical power over a distance of five to ten centimeters (2-4 inches). I've done some research (mostly online) and have found extremely limited information. Even my beloved Google has forsaken me, and even my pleadings to eldritch information deities such as AltaVista have gone unrewarded. Can anyone help?"
Nikola Tesla would be proud!
I want one of their charging platters in my car's glove compartment, and another in my backpack. It's like a battery toaster!
--
make install -not war
Braun does this too. I've had a cordless toothbrush with this for about 3 years. There s a way to recycle the battery (put handle in the charging stand and twist) though I don't know if there are replacement batteries. The only issue has nothing to do with the battery; the brush heads crack easily if dropped (what can I say, I'm clumsy).
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
I know not to complain, but I can't resist. I know /. is not aup-to-date news (I mean it is, sometimes), but this thing was promissed by the same company, during the CeBIT back in March 2003. Perhaps candidate to the Wired Vaporware list next year?
Where do you get these lovable cranks? Not even 100 comments and already I've read a dozen odd rantings:
Wireless power is stupid and gives you cancer and you have to plug it into the wall anyway! Take that Faraday!
-sig removed for tax purposes-
This is informative, but you should have responded to the parent, not the troll, and certainly not used the quote.
Should they just have copyright on the designs? Can they patent this, considering the previous work? What exactly have they achieved?
How is this going to work? Directional? What is the point?
I see some very scarey things happening when everyone has one of these... electrical fires for one, and home made ranged weapons as another!
What happens when you point some of these around electrical items such as computers?
Of course, heart regulators (batteries replaceable on the outside) are one of these applications / are already using this technology.
But all other devices, you would have to cradle anyway...
need to read more, but sounds stupid.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
The term 'wireless' is meant to mean that there isn't a two line connection between the devices with metal.
I bet there are wires inside of the inductors on either end of the thing.
The way to do wireless transmission of power is between two wave guides.
Imagine a system of communication with two wave guides. As the signal comes in you read it. But you can also use the power from it to power your device.
When you use wave guides you create a very tight beam. You could do this accross a long distance.
I remember hearing about a small drone airplane made by Canadian Accedemics that was powered with a microwave feed from the ground.
This was over ten years ago.
As far as the product that this article is about, it doesn't impress me at all. Big deal, they can make a transformer in two pieces and not use a solid core, but a two piece core. They still need to put the thing in the cradle.
Every time I hear about wireless power, or microwave power, I always think back to SimCity 2000: Sure, the wireless power stations are cheap and clean, but if the beam goes out of focus, your city gets lit on fire! Just like in real life! I think...
How about if the radiation just burns your organs by frying them? When you are talking about radio-wave frequency it is well known that certain bands of EMF are known to burn flesh. Hence, the microwave oven.
It is also known that a square wave is made up from a series of frequencies. Those sideband frequencies could be in a range that would ionize water. The ionization of water in molecules cooks these molecules. If EMF fields at a distance didn't have an effect then why was there ever any research done on the Nutron Bomb?
If you sit in the sunlight for days you can get skin cancer.
Don't be a dimwit troll for the wireless industry. There are millions of cell-phones and wireless devices. They are continuously on. This power has an effect on the environment. Face it, the wireless industry will probably get sued next for this.
Wireless power by induction is inferior to conduction in almost every way. Although there is no need for conductor-conductor contact, the distance between the wires still needs to be less than a centimeter for acceptable efficiency.
The only really useful application for this (IMO) is for recharging waterproof devices. Whether a market for waterproof phones exists is questionable, but using "wireless" power in cameras, camcorders, or outdoor GPS units (it's already in my toothbrush) may be marketable.
Just thought of this. If this were standard on cellaular phones, it would be very difficult to talk on and charge your phone and the same time. You would probably have to keep your head very close to the mat. Even though there is no direct link between EMI and cancer, this is a practice I would be reluctant to perform often.
If you talk on the phone with your left ear and keep you right ear near the pad, if they phone would still charge the charge would be going through your head!
Time to break out the tin-foil hats
Splashpower spells an end to hunting for the right charger, finding free socket space or fiddling with connectors
.55 cent coin that looks like a 2 euro coin (fscking dumb-shits award for that coin?)
yeah, because A:
- You already have the scanner sized pad plugged into the wall... so the sockwet is already not free...
- You have to have a permanent loss of deskspace for this pad... (which is like the pads used in batteries for heart shizzle right?)
- You will probably own devices that use this, and other devices, hey ho, you still need to fiddle... why not just build onj the standard power interfaces we have (jacks) with an intelligent protocol adapater that releases the right voltage...
INSTEAD of bulking up the MOBILE devices with additional equipt to pickup and utilise the 'wireless' energy...
Seems silly to advertise standards of recharging with the idea of remote recharging, as tey are seperate issues, you can have standard power cahrging without an uber ghay charger pad...
I say fad, and don't put your cash in it... not that this technology has some uses, but this is "hey we got it working, erm, lets pretend it is the answer to a completely different question, because erm, we couldnt actually find a question (use) for it..."
Just my stupid fscking
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
What's the next new technology in computers? That's right; it's MRAM (Magnetic RAM). How will MRAM function in the presence of these strong alternating magnetic fields? Answer: Not very well.
You could probably charge a laptop more effectively with light if its case were fabricated with quad junction GaAs cells (under clear plastic). Then there would be no need for any radiation sources other than ambient light.
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sigs are a waste of space
Generates inductive field to power any enabled device placed on the pad.
ANY DEVICE can be placed on the splash pad and recharged! sounds too good to be true?
All mobile devices fitted with a SplashModule are ready to receive wireless power from a SplashPad charging base. The thin receiver module is customized to the shape, size and power requirements of the device and can be easily integrated into the host device or add-on accessories.
aaah... so instead of shagging around for a plug to go in a wall to connect to your device... you now need to shag around for a plug that.. plugs into the device... so you can place it on this mat...
and you might have 10 of them... which one was it?... ok until products come built in support... but read my prev. comment about mobile devices and bulk.
WHAT IS DOES DO:
allow you to use your splashable [TM] (R) © device anywhere they have the 'splash here' sign (most probably smelling of urine...). SO this is one benefit... if you forget to charge your mobile device...
'splashable' (TM me!!) I claim splashable as a trademark!! ok... now screw off...
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Because it's annoying as hell, you fucking moron. Now stick your free Mini AND your free iPod up your ass and quit wasting space here with your idiotic ponzi schemes.
Of course they had issues. All studies have issues (points of discussion). You mean they had serious problems, so say it. No euphemism is required.
Seriously though, the `troll' was correct, even though he didn't exactly say it in the best possible way. But more detail was warranted, and I provided that.
you obviousy had a defective model and should have contacted the company. my entire family (5 people) have owned them for about 2 years now, and they are running good as new.stop being such a drag
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female.so not found
/home/bed/room.
insteadNothing to do in
make: sweet love failed
My wireless phone and palm pilot are already chargable, otherwise they would have died long ago...
You have the order of Tesla's work backwards. He had the whole 3-phase AC system worked out before coming to the USA to work with Edison. He later developed the florescent light and wireless power distribution techniques.
Do a search on 'Wardenclyffe Tower' to see that you are incorrect about how far he took the wireless power and communication concept. Far beyond un-inked drawings indeed. It was destroyed in 1917.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
this has nothing to do with the technology
I've had a braun toothbrush for maybe 4 years now, still works great. the only problems I had were mechanical and were fixed by opening the toothbrush and adding some oil to the motor shaft, after maybe 2.5 years of daily use.
You probably got one of the cheap ripoffs. I've had a Sonicare toothbrush for a couple of years and it still works great. It'll hold enough charge to last at least 5 days, so I can bring it on trips and leave the charger at home.
Actually, you've got it backwards. Coils with fewer turns can supply more current than coils with more turns, but at a lower voltage. More turns == more voltage, less current. Fewer turns == lower voltage, higher current.
For the purpose of charging a battery, the only concern is voltage. You have to have at least battery voltage in order to get current to flow into the battery. So ideally, you want to use as few turns as necessary to achieve the desired voltage (over-volting the battery is pointless and destructive).
Never mind this crap, how much power can I get from all these transmitters that are clogging the spectrum? Surely i need only a lot of lumps of wire and a few diodes?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
A while back, I heard about a similar "recharging pad" - that instead was made up of hundreds of metal contact points (pins?) on a pad. On the flat side (eg: back) of each device to be charged, there were raised metal ridges in a certain pattern. When the device was put down onto the surface, it signaled the pad that it wanted a certain voltage through the metal pins that it made contact with. The pad then sent an electric current through whatever pins were in contact with the device.
This was contactful with 0% loss due to generating the magnetic field, was going to work for a larger range of devices since each device could request a particular voltage, and foolproof because of the "request / response" nature (ie: setting keys down on the surface doesn't short it out because the appropriate pins are only charged when requested).
Anybody know what happened to it? Or was it simply a solution that was overcomplicated (and dropped) compared to this magnetic induction one?
my Braun worked for 7 years before the battery died. mad!
in the pad, half in the device. Remind anyone of the non-contact (inductive) AC receptacles proposed as a safety standard some years ago?
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnold pad.htm
We use microwave electromagnetic radiation in our kitchens with little risk, because its danger is recognized, and we spend extra to shield and manage it for safety. That's infeasible for cellphone radio, so they deny its potential risk, and we still don't know whether it's dangerous (though it looks worse all the time). We should learn from those two experiences, and determine the radiation risk from these chargers before its too late to change them. The generic nature of power, vs. the unique identities of bits, means that we can easily "buffer" the power in batteries, and recharge in shielded chambers, offering the kind of convenience of WiFi hotspots, though not the total freedom of 3G coverage, with the safety of conventional microwave ovens.
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make install -not war
I know pacemakers use induction for recharge.
I'm also pretty sure my Oral B electric toothbrush uses the same. There's a plastic peg that sticks up, you set the brush on it and you're charging.
And in this Avengers episode (even mentions Tesla in the review!)
I want this on my coffee table like their picture. I want a pad over my whole floor, with receivers in the feet of my tables and stuff, then another pad on tabletop.
I want to be able to move the table around and it'll just work with no cables trailing and my mobile devices in the middle of the room, where I can get at them
Just build it into my coffee table and I'll be good to go. Just set the laptop and all of those rechargable bluetooth devices on it.
Go solar.
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
did anybody else notice that the article says:
:)
"The Splashpower technology compromises two parts"
shouldn't that say "comprises"?? Minor difference in meaning...
For all the people knocking the application of this technology think about it for a second. if you change the number of coils in the secondary coil you can chargeit with a diffrent voltage. So if you have a pda and a phone that both use this and one uses 3.3V and the other 1.5V they can both be charged on the same pad so you would only need one charge for all your devices
One of their patents, "ADAPTING PORTABLE ELECTRICAL DEVICES TO RECEIVE POWER WIRELESSLY", is for a power receiving device plugged into the existing power adapter on an electronic device.
Prior art includes: 1)solar cells with a plug. 2)A coil of wire with a plug. 3)Stealing electric power from utility lines. 4)any detachable radio antenna when used with an RF powered device (such as a field strength meter).
Also, these are intended to be permanently attached to your cell phone or similar device. So, perhaps a better title should be "device for breaking the power connector on portable electronic equipment" because that is exactly what will happen in short order. Having the plug protruding from your portable device while you carry it around will expose the connector to stresses it will not withstand. To do this safely requires a hard case with a shroud around the plug, not just some cheesy stick on pad as they suggest in the patent.
I think it is highly likely many of their other patents infringe on prior art such as cordless toothbrushes, digititizer pads (summagraphics/wacom) - particularly those with cordless pucks powered by the sensor field, and the deactivator pads for anti-theft tags.
European? I suggest you look at who owns Braun. I'll give you a hint. They're based in Boston.
The problem with DC voltages is that you can't easily run them through a transformer to step up or down.. interestingly enough this is no longer the case, and modern power switching technology is very efficient and very good - to the point where it is now viable, and as far as I am aware, used by some electric utilities.
DC voltages offer other advantages too, for example, minimal radiation and reactance losses.
..don't panic
It's a kiwi flick where a scientist commits suicide in the opening scene. He was working on a project that would project power to every device in the world, so you wouldn't have to plug in. It killed off everyone in the world except for those who died at the very instant the device went off.
The most memorable scene: the scientist points a shotgun at a statue of Chirst demanding to know from God why everyone was dead, or he'll "shoot the kid".
Wireless power is already used in some types of parking transponders. These are the things that people have in their cars that open the gates when they drive up. Although most parking transponders still use a small battery (watch battery), batteryless transponders are becomming more common. I'm an EE student and the parking permits at the university that I go to use this technology. Basically it operates on RF energy. The transponder has an antenna that picks up RF energy from a transmitter at the gate. A capacitor charges (quickly) and then the transponder sends out a signal which the receiver decodes and (depending on authorization) opens the gate.
How is this news? My toothbrush has been recharging this way for oh, at least the last six or eight years.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
They're effectively selling a Air Induction transformer. Take a coil of wire, run some AC through it. Take another coil of wire and bring it close to the first one. Register voltage on the second wire. It's not that revolutionary.
Generally these manufacturers apparently think they can make a lot of money charging a fortune for car chargers or replacement wall chargers, and thus they do not make charger connectors (or batteries) to be compatible with anything else (or sometimes with their own brands). This is a foolish and wasteful practice because third-party companies will come out with adequate chargers - for less money - very shortly after any model is developed. Unless and until manufacturers decide that competing on the peripheral connectors is not really an advantage to them the problems of so many different cords is going to be a continuing problem not likely to be solved.
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
And its pretty cool. I just designed some of the IC's into it and have seen an advanced proto. It's more impressive than it sounds, mainly because they have some patents on how the charging field is directed. People will love this - you still have a single wire to the pad then you can just pile all of your favourite rechargeable gear on top. There's also massive potential to have these in public places (think starbucks table..)
Wortheles? No.
True story: I got a Sonicare and started using it. One month later it was time for a dental checkup. The nice lady who cleans my teeth took one look and said "I can already see you are doing something different, and whatever it is I like it." And I thought to myself... that's after just one month!
With the Sonicare my teeth get cleaner. I used to have horrible time at the dentist getting teeth cleaned. It took a long time and she would have to stop half way through to re-sharpen her tools, which were getting dulled by the stuff she had to scrape off my teeth.
Did you think of trying to get the Sonicare factory to repair or replace your tooth brush before you destroyed it?
My Sonicare has lasted a lot longer than a year.
- Laptop Computer
- 2nd Laptop Computer
- Cell phone charger
- Bluetooth Headset Charger
- USB Hard Drive (3.5" requires its own power)
- Telephone
- MP3 Player
- PDA
- Electric Razor
- Portable DVD Player
- Various other electronic devices
- Flashlight
This means that I have eight power cables on my desk at all times (ok, most times) and I end up carrying with me four or more power cables / bricks all the time. If I had a power pad built into my desk or even as a deskpad I could replace twelve or more cables with one. I would also have one that I would carry with me that would plug in once and power all my devices. I have been trying to figure out a way to setup one DC Power point and power everything off that but with various power requirements it has not been feasable. If this comes to fruition and is adopted by many companies (even as an add on) I thing it would greatly improve my cable situation.and on occasion:
A second use (though minor) would be to allow those wireless keyboards and mice to be useful rather than just anoying. Every time I go to use a wireless mouse it has gone to sleep and about one in four times it has no power left to work. If you had a power pad as a mouse pad, that wireless mouse could stay active all the time (or a much longer idle time before sleep) and never have dead batteries.
If this technology is adopted widely enough it will start to be incorporated directly into cubicles and other office furniture. Eventually we will see it in things like airports etc and we will probably see an increase in the "airport fee / tax" that is charged to help cover the cost of the power used.
"Computer Scientists can count to 1024 on their fingers" (non-mutant, non-mutilatated, human computer scientists)
http://www.braun.com/global/company/history.html
I think that part of the problem is that due to the labelling of the article, people were expecting wireless charging along the same lines as "cordless" phones.
I think the true value of such a concept comes with "sealed" products. Definately anything that is implanted in a human body would benefit. Another advantage would be for any product that needs to be waterproof. For anything that might be exposed to water, the charging point can also generally become a "shorting point." With inductiv e charging, you could have a strongly water-resistant cellphone (although you also couldn't have wired data/headset jacks, bluetooth would work for that) or other similar devices. Very nice.
Sonicare electric toothbrushes have been recharging via magnetic induction for years. Another example of the patent office granting a bogus patent, or is there something truly innovative here?
If not troll, than maybe flamebait? I voted Libertarian myself. If a liberal posted sarcastically, "And Bush is our rightful president" wouldn't that be flamebait? Actually, I have about equal lack of confidence regarding both EMI and Bush's legitimacy as president. I first thought the original post might have been sarcastic, but now it seems a bit ironic.
I mean, it was bad enough when he wanted me to fax him some paper, but if I have to start charging his etch-a-sketch from my cubicle, I'll have to call upon Saint Dogbert to exorcise that demon of stupidity.
It has been a nervous year, with people beginning to feel like Christian Scientists with appendicitis.
In his first test Tesla burned out a generator at Colorado Springs. Later there were claims that he succeeded in lighting 200 incandescent bulbs at a distance of 25 miles. But this was never confirmed. Tesla never published a thorough description of his work. Even if the thing worked it's difficult to see how you'd avoid wasting huge amounts of energy.
Still, if Splashpower is successful, I'd like it. Resting my sonicare toothruch in that smooth plastic base rather than fumbling for a power jack in the morning is great.
http//injoke.org -- Culling The Interesting
I like to compare the Tesla- Edison conflict to what is going on today. Tesla was a man of science while Edison was business. Today we have Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds- In a hundred years from now are people going to even know who Torvalds was? Or will the Gates/Microsoft empire bury him like Edison burried Tesla?