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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."
" There are several small problems with this, the first being that it still requires wires! "
It still isnt 'wireless'...
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.
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!
Tesla had the unfortunate distinction of being latched onto by a lot of wackos who believed he was some kind of Venutian sent to Earth to save us from our ignorance. This biography illuminates his problems with Edison, who only hated AC because he didn't think of it first. Since the book was written in 1981, the author would not have known about Asperger's Syndrome, but from the accounts of all his quirks, it seems pretty obvious that he was a poster child for the condition. He was also very loyal, almost to a fault, and often to the wrong people. When George Westinghouse complained to Tesla that he couldn't afford to pay him the million dollars he had promised him for the patents on the AC power transmission system, Tesla gave him the rights. Later, when Tesla started running out of funds for his experiments, Westinghouse left him out in the cold. Another interesting thing about Edison: As part of his smear campaign to prove how "unsafe" alternating current was, he held many public demonstrations at which he used AC to electrocute live animals. Nice guy, huh? If I believed in a hell, I'd have to think that Edison is there now, being eternally electrocuted with high currents of the DC he was so fond of.