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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."
Never thought of it like that actually, i suppose it is huge waste, and is simply making it wireless, for wireless sake, there are almost no benefits
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.