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Splashpower Boasts Wireless Power
Sullivan writes "Maccentral is running a story on a startup called Splashpower that hopes to be able to wirelessly recharge all of our handheld devices. They have a working prototype that already recharges an iPod Mini and a cell phone. Now we can look forward to yet another way to get brain cancer."
I think this is a very cool device and have often wondered why more devices haven't come with wireless re-chargability (think electric toothbrushes). But I wonder about the efficiency of this method. Is it? And if it's not, how less efficient is it than direct contact recharging? As more and more gadgets and devices become rechargable technology this would seem to be more important. I don't know much about electronics at the engineering level, so any erudite replies would be appreciated.
This is probably how Tesla would have charged his iPod.
the tinfoil hat
My electric toothbrush has done this for years.
Gee, "pick up the cord, plug it in" or "set on pad". Not really worth $250 to me.
My first thought when reading this: Build it in to a desk and use it as your mouse pad. Then, you would never have to charge your wireless mouse. Sweet.
--Nycto
... wireless charging device, it's so snazzy looking with my iPod... the cancer is just a minor byproduct.
*rofl*
Wonder what kinda phsyical ramifications this will have on people? Did they ever prove that living near high-tension power lines causes cancer?
Shadus
still, i'd like it if this became mainstream.
philo
The "I'm getting cancer and my kids have ADD because of the powerlines in my house" crowd and their lawyers are going to have a field day with this!
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
The summary is misleading. All it is a generic recharging pad. It doesn't require wires...but not in the sense that your device recharges through the air. You just lay your device on a pad and it charges. It's a convience I suppose - but not too exciting.
Inductive power has been around for a while, mostly in electric toothbrushes.
It's not "wireless" as the devices have to be pretty much touching the pad.
For things like mp3 players and cellphones, it's really useless unless you're completely lazy or hate charging wires with a passion.
No chance of brain cancer here, really.
-- There's only one replacement for displacement.....
My electric shaver recharges this way, and i've been wondering why we don't just have a pad that we can toss our electric gadgets onto for recharging.
My wish has been granted!
As for efficiency, I'll refer you to DansData, because he knows the answer to everything.
Your Answer Here
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
It still has to sit on top of the pad to work.
..I want something that will let me charge my batteries by urinating on them! Oh, wait...
the way I understand it, it works in exactly the same way as the transformer in every power supply... these things are short range (typically a few centemeters max) so the risk of em celular damage should be insigificant. I wonder though, how this will play with the actual electronics in the device itself. Electronics tend to get fried by high power e.m. fields, and if the device has any kind of coil that isn't intended for power coupling you may end up cooking the device?
"It's basically the concept of creating a magnetic field that goes parallel to the surface of the pad rather than out of the pad and this has many benefits," said Lily Cheng, chief executive officer and cofounder of the company, speaking at a news conference. "It enables us to deliver a very uniform output across the pad and enables us to make a receiver coil that is very thin."
Sounds like they are using a basic transformer here. Only difference is that they didn't build the two coils in one solid piece. Wonder how high they can keep the efficiency here.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
Wireless power is not all that difficult to implement, just don't step in front of the beam or you are wirelessly cooked.
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
100 watts to charge a 5 watt device. Brilliant.
It also charged this way.
It was quite efficient (>85%?), but many complained it wasn't as efficient as conductive charging.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
When you said Afroman, This is what i thought you meant:
Afroman
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
It seems like to charge, it has to be touching the charging device, or at least hover very close to it. It would be really cool if, say, you were in your house and your ipod just started charging, however, I don't see that much of an advantage here vs. just taking an extra 2 seconds and plugging in a power supply. Same thing with a wireless mouse - it's cool, but in reality, it's not that useful - i mean, how far away do you really sit away from your computer?
That's all very nice, but what I'd really like to see is power cords and adapters for my tech gear just made neater.
To power my mac and accessories I have twelve separate powercords and seven different adapters making a mess under my desk. Shouldn't it be possible to make a single adapter to power all the smaller devices, and have some neat way to daisy chain little power cords for the stuff that doesn't need much power (which is most of the devices on my desk)?
This is just recharge on contact.
Actually with Tesla's method there is never a discharge, though I'm probably using the word "discharge" slightly different from current usage.
http://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+wireless
So, they have created a device that recharges devices wirelessly, if you place the device on top of the pad.
My cell phone, my beard trimmer, and my toothbrush already recharge wirelessly... sure, I have to place them in their cradles and line up the contacts, but it's still approximately the same.
What is being offered here is a universal charger system. The rest of it is bells and whistles. What Splashpower needs to do is get the device producers to incorporate the hardware necessary for this, and to get hotels etc. to install the pads.
This is problematic, as stated in the article. Device-makers won't install the charging coil unless the infrastructure for charging is in place; establishments won't purchase the charging pads unless a sufficient amount of devices have the coil installed. There's just no ROI for a hotel chain to install these in their rooms and suites, and no reason for an end-user to purchase an enabled device if chargers aren't available.
Nice idea, but don't buy stock.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
To pick up the power field, gadgets must have a receiver coil built into them or have an adapter clipped on the back
Trade one adapter for another...
...is alot more flexible, longer, and smaller. Yes, I have to "plug it in" instead of "set it on". But my wire can be taken with me. One of them can plug into my car. both of them together are a fraction the size of this pad.
And maybe I'm not getting it, but isn't that thing plugged in?!??! If I'm not mistaken, they have only replaced the plug with a plate. When I first read the article, i was excited to think someone figured out how to charge my devices anywhere... like on a trail.
This is an example of something very cool that is impractical. I applaud them, but I will not buy their stock.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Splashpower has, quite literally, been around since the collapse at the beginning of the '00s. They started out doing more specific product development (talking about recharge pads and the like), but in recent years all I've heard about is the fact they've been trying to work the licensing angle and had signed a couple of agreements with a car parts manufacturer.
Basically this seems like a natural evolution of the toothbrush (Sonicare, etc.) concept in a very useful way. Of course who wouldn't want a simple pad on which to drop all your assorted techn gobbledygook (PDA, phone, MP3 player, etc.). That said, whether this will EVER make it to market is an entirely different question.
I have to say that after like 5 years I'm a little suspect.
Best,
rt
Now we're one step closer to the Broadcast Energy Transmitter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093066/). Better watch out or Cobra-La will use it to deploy spores from space.
so when I read the article I wasn't disappointed. I bought an electric toothbrush that has a charging cradle, no contact points, no wires. Same thing, minus the ipod attachment [pauses to think about patenting the mp3 toothbrush with wireless power].
The term "wireless power" is technically correct, but not in any way that anybody would care about. This is limited by proximity, like any old inductor or transformer. If you have a cord to the wall, and must be near it, why not plug in your dock instead, and get data communication as well? It's really not inconvenient and certainly not difficult to plug things into available power sockets, so please stop trying to solve this "problem".
I'll save my excitement for when we start figuring out how to make Tesla's dreams come true.
I could be worrying about nothing, perhaps the power levels involved in the fields are too low to cause problems, but... do I really want to be setting my iPod or other memory-chip or mini-hard-drive device on an inductive pad?
I mean, it's fine for my toothbrush ( if a tad slow an inefficient compared to a direct cable connection )... but is that cable to my iPod really such a problem, and might it not be a tad dangerous for my precious data to place it directly on an inductive surface ?
At last the technology of electric toothbrushes from the '80s today in our handheld devices!
Wake me up when they scale this technology up to the point when it can regenerate *me* in my own personal Borg Alcove.
Oh, the japes you could have with one of these pads. I bet with a little bit of careful soldering, you could make any mobile phone that comes within its vicinity explode scalding Lithium Hydroxide all over the owner's suppirating, unexpectant face.
Hilarity ensues.
Why didn't they build an adapter for a normal iPod? Oh yea, the hard drive in a magenetic field thing.
Honestly, I can't personally forsee a lot of uses for this (other than the mousepad idea mentioned which has merrit).
I find laziness to be an excellent motivator.
He had wireless power distribution 100 years ago.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I remember someone I worked with had one of these... the tech isn't new, but I swear there is already a product on the market that is pretty much identical to this. It was probably 2 years ago at least, and I remember she had an adapter on her cell phone and a few other devices that were charging just by sitting on the pad. I just tried searching google (haphazardly) and wasn't able to find them though...
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
Would it be possible to combine this type of technology with Bluetooth (or some other wireless technology) in a case to create PC internals that didn't require cables to be ran to them for data and power?
If that would work, the case could be shielded to prevent your neighbors from snooping on the data being transmitted over the air from your HD to your controller, etc.
I'm not a hardware person, so maybe this wouldn't be possible, but it would be pretty cool if it were...
No! It's notta tumor! [its a feature.]
For a mouse, I get it, it's exactly the same as the Wacom batteryless pen tables. EXACTLY. It's not new.
But for other stuff, this only adds complication. I mean, you might as well just say all devices should have the same charging connector so you don't have to have multiple wall warts. That would work as well as this.
And no better.
There's still problems with voltages/power draws and trying to charge multiple devices at once.
I can think of 5 other steps which are a lot better than this one, and each is closer to reachable than this.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Does anyone else appreciate the sheer irony that the splash pad in the picture has a power cord sticking out of it?
It's "PLOAF," not "P-LOAF." Ask about it.
The one main advantage is the end of ac-dc adapters aka wall warts.
That would be nice, definitely... but do manufacturers want to get rid of proprietary wall warts? If they did, then why hasn't anyone come up with a universal wall wart connector specification that says that all wall wart connectors will be the same size and polarity? (I can understand defferent needs as far as voltages go.) A lot of devices tell you specifically not to use another wall wart, maybe because the average customer (non-slashdotter) doesn't know how to read the voltage, current and polarity specs. But it does seem like they don't want it that easy to use a 3rd party power adapter. Maybe they think that if your power adapter breaks, you'll just buy a new phone/PDA/MP3 player.
In any case, if this does become popular, this one Splashpower manufacturer will have to swing deals with all of the electroncis companies to get their equipment built into every device, or make adapters for each device that they're not built into, which is fine, but what if a competitor releases a similar product? Would a cell phone with a SpalshPower adapter built-in work with a chargin pad from another company? Would an external iPod adapter from another manufacturer work with a SplashPower pad?
I'm just thinking this might not quite solve the multiple wall wart problem
OTOH, this maybe a bit more refreshing.
Seems like this would be nice for laptops. I usually just sit mine on the end table when I'm done with it, so if I could sit it there and recharge it at the same time that'd be nice. Yeah, it's not that difficult to plug in, but if these were cheap and devices supported 'em, it'd just be convienent.
The whole problem with this is that companies don't want to support it until the infrastructure is out there and the manufacturer can't get the pads out there until products support it. So who takes the big dive first? Should be the big corporations, IMO. Start with cell phones and iPods and you can't go wrong, can you?
What I'm really waiting for is a way to wirelessly power a flat screen TV on the wall so I don't have to run a power cord to it. Sure, if I build the house, I can hide the power cords, but that's rarely the case. With that, I can wirelessly stream movies, etc to it and not have any cables showing at all. Sweet.
---John Holmes...
I can think of a whole lot of far-more-entertaining ways to get brain cancer, so I'm not really excited about this. ;-)
Stiny! Get me a danish!
Excellent link from the parent -- I have an electric toothbrush that charges the same way and I've always wondered how efficient it is. Apparently it isn't much worse than traditional adapters used for phones and such: about 70%.
.7 for the "remote" charging.) Right?
However, if you look at the photo of the splashpower base, it looks as though the base itself uses an AC adapter (the cord appears to have a male DC-power connector). If that's the case then you really have to hits in the chain, and the system is ultimately 50% efficient (.7 for the adapter that powers the base, times
A few steps further down the road we can se Nikola Tesla's grand vision coming true! His Wardenclyffe Tower was meant to give wireless power to the world (and a nice brainfry to anyone wearing a tinfoil hat) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower
Just use solar cells and put your devices under a table lamp.
/. readers seem to use electric toothbrushes?
Also, why is it that so many
The efficiency is probably not at all bad; the magnetic field is short range and, in the absence of a receiver, the only thing in the magnetic circuit to absorb energy is the hysteresis of the inductor in the transmitter. Which, with modern ferrites, can be pretty small, unless of course they are using a purely air-cored system at the transmitter end, in which case it's tiny.
The huge potential benefit of this system is that it eliminates the second most unreliable part of electronic systems: connectors. Anyone who has worked at the sharp end of electronics knows that connectors suck, big time. Designs proliferate. There are far too many of them and they are far too unstandardised. And connectors designed to be repeatedly made and broken are the worst of the lot. Although the designs have come a long way (the fact that gigabit copper Ethernet connectors work is a small electronic miracle in itself) they are still the worst part of any system, after the batteries.
So here we have a system which if widely adopted allows most of the tiny connectors used in portable devices to disappear, and possibly reduces the demands on batteries because people will find recharging easier. Those are big pluses.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
I've always thought it would be cool if Apple made a completely sealed, solid-state iPod. It would need inductive charging built in, as well as wireless bluetooth headphones. I'm not sure if a standard exists for it, but there also needs to be a very short-range (i.e., through the inductive charger) high-bandwidth wireless data transfer protocol. How cool would it be to have a waterproof iPod nano? Maybe someday they'll evolve into equally slim, sealed and lightweight tablets.
I believe when they turn this on, it's going to wipe out all life on the planet.
as posted before, this technology is called "transformator". It uses alternated magnetical fields over a copper coil.
Another technology is known to use electrical high-frequency fields. Some of you may have heard of it. You take an oscilating circuit, say a capacitor-resistor-transistor array or more complex, but less thermosensitive, a PLL. You connect this to a cable. The other end of that cable is unconnect. Make that cable long the n-th piece of the distance a light beam would travel in a oscillation period (lambda / n). Tada!
here you go: energy from the oscillating circuit "disappears".
This energy can be retained, using a similiar cable (so-called "antenna" in both cases).
Now that has advantages: The energy will only affect cables, chips, PCB connections etc of a length similiar to lambda/n .
(BTW: why doesn't slashdot let me use the greek symbol?)
It can be quite efficient, beam formers are easy to build, and the distance can be varied.
Ah, and that technology goes back to a man named Marconi. I hope you know what I mean by now.
I was talking with my friend just the other day about this concept (i didnt know it was this further along, despite the fact that I have a Sonicare toothbrush . . . duh)
The exciting thing is when appliances and their stands/desks/cabinets are able to become conduits for power.
No more messy wires.
Eventually, I would think this could be built into flooring and moulding in houses so there would be power running everywhere and we'd no longer have to worry about wires, placement of electronics close to outlets, extension cords, etc, etc.
I cant stand the ratsnest of wires I've got with my Mac, cell, ipod, speakers, scanner, printer. Ugh.
huge magnetic field + ipod mini's internal hard drive and electronics?
doesn't sound like a good idea to me. i'll stick with throwing mine on its dock.
If you have a universal plug adapter you can really do the same thing. The difference is simply laying the device down and spending $150.00 for that slight convenience.
How many of you read this first thought you could recharge remotely, say within 100 feet of this device? Now THAT would be convenient.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Non-slip dash pad
Build it into the dash with a non-slip dash pad over it, put an iTrip on your iPod, and hit the road for 17+ hours straight. Forget about plugging into the cigarette lighter to recharge the iPod.
You're both right. On the whole, it really isn't a time saver, as you still have to do some plugging in and setting up. But you don't have to have so many different power plugs, all of which hurt portability. This will become more useful as we get smaller and smaller devices. This is probably the first product of a line that will progressively get better. Afterall, that's part of the point of Slashdot, right? To bring us news on cool stuff before the masses realize how cool it is in two product cycles.
Now, a question from the economics major (read: lay person) - if I try to charge multiple devices, as Parent suggests is possible, don't I risk tripping a circuit or something? Or at least them all charging slower?
... buy the new iPod Pico, just like the Nano, but with an inductive coil!!! no more pesky recharging jacks!
All your dollars are belong to Apple!
-everphilski-
There's a big difference between contactless power and wireless power. Wake me up when I can walk around town drawing power for my iPod from overhead lines.
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
So I first have to plug my iPod into a wireless charging adapter, then lay it on the "wireless charging pad" that is plugged into the wall... Wow, that is so amazing. You know what else would be sweet? If I could just place it in a cradle. Oh wait...
To me, wireless recharging means a home tesla coil, then again if we had true wireless recharging, we wouldn't need batteries at all. Now, contactless recharging (toothbrushes,shavers) are just using induction, this is the same method used to power the Mobil SpeedPass for example.
I won't buy it until it can recharge ME wirelessly. Then I can stop doing useless activities like eating, and spend more time in front of my monitor.
we have the reason why this thing will not gain support from the device manufacturers! Building devices to be compatable with this might interfere with the devices functionality, manufacture price, and Quality-Testing.
Also, this has been menitoned, but I somehow have doubts this will work "properly" over time for devices with magnetic hard-drives or other mechanisms (what about cell-phone antennas?). Notice how they used an ipod mini with its aluminum case - wouldnt it act as shielding if you made the end thing use it as such?
Anyways, if you want a fun time, leave a metal slinky on top of this thing while its on! Or embed some coils in a bowl and you can use it to heat water slowly. I also wonder if this will (like everything else) screw up wireless networks... why didnt they list any technical information anyway?
It's Been done (for cheap too!)
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
It would be very interesting to look at the true cost savings that *might* be able to be found from this. If you look at your average small portable consumer widget that has a connector or two, the cost of the connectors can often exceed the code of the chips.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/ Hmm...
The purpose of technology is to enhance our lives without changing the way we live. So, as many of you have said, this saves us a few seconds/dollars perhaps of having to hook up each individual device to its respective power cord, and instead laying them all on this here pad. It's 1% better, I guess. But the ultimate goal would be to not even have to charge something in the first place. My cell phone and Ipod should be able to charge by themselves without me having to "charge" them. Now that would be some impressive technology worth my $250.
This has great potential going forward! Merely have some kind of chemical/electronic reaction which has improved performance as the temperature increases. Thus as we start to swelter, we'd have to charge our phones less (or our refrig's more)...
It were wider, and able to accomodate a bunch of devices. For me, this would be:
My PDA, phone, and bluetooth head set. And my wife's PDA and phone. That's five devices. A nice little "dock" by the front door where we could plop all our devices at night and grab them on the way out. Instead of a mess of transformers and a power strip to accomodate them.
Unfortunately as the article mentions, this wouldn't happen until the device makers all supported it. So they'd have to push for that first.
Now, I would happily buy something like this for my laptop alone. Much less anoying than wrapping up my cord every day. Yeah, its a little thing, but still, way convenient. Not to mention my cord is wearing out...
-- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
would it be possible to use this kind of technology to wirelessly power automobiles?
One good thing about wired chargers is for example when you're on your cell phone and the battery starts beeping, you just attach the wire and it charges WHILE you use the phone (i.e. have it pressed to your ear). Same thing goes with electric shavers...
None of this would work with this wireless charger. Not that I wouldn't like one laying around...
Waiting for you by the bridge
with these types of chargers is that the charging pad needs a wire connecting it to the mains. Im not saying its not a fantastic idea , but to really make benefit of these things they need to be concealed in furniture and surfaces such as desks and kitchen worktops. Integration and ubiquity is the stumbling block that we will have to overcome.
...
In reality portable devices have already overcome the problem of needing a wire once charged we are good to go. Its TV's , consoles, vcrs, hifi's and speakers are where I would be applying this type of technology. Plugging my phone into a convenient socket does not fill me with dread quite like the prospect of having to reach around the back of my computer or the spaghetti junction behind the TV. The person who solves these nightmares is the one that's going to make the real megabucks, because thats a problem that really needs to be solved.
Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
They have been around for a while. I even saw a device being demonstrated a couple of years ago, and it was quite impressive. Still, it seems to be taking time to get going - maybe the cost of the additions needed to the device are a little high? I don't know....
a kers_to_try_splash/
Here's an article from 2003:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/19/battery_m
I don't think that such a technology would add damages to our brains much more than high voltage air power lines, radio frequency repeaters (TV, radio
The real point is that we will still need the recharging station needing wires itself! Is there any really innovating company with a cell phone battery lasting, say, a couple of months? (No uranium, please)
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Reminds me of something else I've seen before... http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnold pad.htm
I just know that I want one of these as a mousepad for my wireless mouse! \m/
\m/
seriously? this is exactly how my good old "Sonicare" toothbrush bas been recharged, every day since 1998! so - how is this new?
Right now this might not be so special, but think of what might come after. If all electronic products had this one kind of charger needed (as opposed to the dozens needed for even just phones, for example), and if you got the range up, you might not even need bateries in your shaver. You'd have this one thing pluged into a wall socket hiding under your couch or something, sending the power dirrectly to your devices. No batteries, cords or anything needed again. A shaver/TV/radio/whatever with no battery in it would be much cheaper, too...
Splashpower is a really interesting company; a couple of students took developed a business plan for a competition. They won the competition and started the company off the back of it while they were still at university. They used an idea that they reasonably certain could be solved (they were both engineers) and started serious work once the funding was sorted out. They've received angel and venture funding.
Splashpads are quite interesting in that they are active devices. When you drop something onto the pad, there's some communication that goes on between the pad and the device. The pad delivers power to the right place on the pad to recharge that device, and only that place. You don't have to orientate the device correctly, and there's no contact made. You can have multiple devces recharging at once.
If you drop your keys onto the pad then they won't electrocute you when you pick them up. And they won't heat up. If you drop electronics that's not enabled onto the pad, then it won't get electrocuted either.
There is a chicken-and-egg problem. On the other hand, I would not be at all surprised to see at least one cell-phone manufacturer adopting their system, and the first step in widespread adoption is to get individual manufacturers to commit to it. They also have the advantage that past a certain penetration point it becomes a de facto standard.
There are several other competing companies. In my opinion the Splashpower system is one of the best and most likely to succeed providing they can move past initial adoption.
Re braincancer. Deeply, deeply unlikely. Worry about the X-rays emitted from your CRT first.
In addition to the cord I now can have have a recharger pad to take up space as well.
Another dumb business idea. Bascially solving a $0.98 electric cord problem with a $20+ per device short-range battery charger. Every single one of your mobile devices needs to be modified to use this. Notice how beautiful that iPod mini dock expander looks with the Splashpower adapter? It looks like a tumor on that device. Multiply this for every mobile device you own.
Oh by the way, a startup in Mountain View had the same lame idea (Mobilewise). Only their genius idea was to have a mousepad covered with conductive dots that you laid your device on. Your device would contact 2 random dots, and the pad would figure out which ones were connected via their magic power chip, and charge your devices properly. They died a merciful death after about $2-3M spent. Again, expensive solution for a cheap problem.
Nothing here to see folks. Move along.
And it's sad that I have to ask. But wouldn't Tesla's family have claim to a number of patents in this area? After all the trasmission of power without wires was his #1 quest throughout his life. In the end this could really mess up this companies patent portfolio
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
Alot of devices perform their charging via induction. It is the same principal as when you hold up a florescent light tube under a high voltage power line and it glows. The electro-magnetic current induces a charge. At our shop here we recently had a lightening strike that hit a galvanized steel pipe that ran between our building carrying ethernet cables ( Iknow dumb idea,it is now underground in PVC and surge arrested.) Non of the ethernet it self was struck but the current that flowed through the pipe induce enough of a charge in the ethernet cable that it fried the Cisco switches on either end.
The problem with using this tech that I can think of is similar to this. How do you control the amount of power that goes into the device ebing charged. I noticed that they had a little addon widget on the bottom of the ipod. This is most likely to add a more inductive area and regulate the power. Device designed to handle this form of charging have that built in. I have heard stories of a guy at a factory I worked at who would charge his nokia by setting it on the 440 lines there. Perhaps a platform that could have certain areas of it surface change the amount of current produce could be controlled by an rfid tag on the device. just some thoughts. cheers.
The article says these should cost from $15-$20 per device. So are we really to expect that Verizon or Cingular are only going to charge that? They charge $50 for a car kit for god sakes! This would be a really good idea to consolidate the mess of cables many people deal with, but this seems like another opportunity for Cell providers to charge ridiculous amounts for someone to work with one specific phone.
They misunderstand. "Wireless" means "over the air," not "sans wire"!
...on second thought, no, I don't really want to be anywhere near that, that can't possibly be safe.
Come back when you can actually transit power through the air.
their latest news page http://www.splashpower.com/news/latest_news.html shows they announced product in October 28, 2002: "Splashpower Announces Universal Wireless Recharging"
I would guess that their problem has been signing up the manufacturers of PDAs and cellphones to actually build-in their product, and to protect their intellectual property as it seems to be an obvious solution (just like many of the best inventions).
I once worked for one of the company's senior staff, John Halfpenny; he's a very smart guy, widely respected round Cambridge, a good businessman and knows his technology, so I've been following this product with interest.
I'm not one of the ones who said that GM shouldn't have used inductive charging, BTW.
But either way, just because you lose some power in a wall wart doesn't mean you should go losing more somewhere else. Losses are cumulative, not substitutive. This device has a power supply of its own.
Most of my personal wall warts are efficient, BTW. But I actually buy devices based upon power consumption (my power bill is half what my friends' are) and measure it with a Kill-A-Watt. Most people don't do this, and yeah, they probably have a lot of space heaters down there.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
A good thing would be not having to make the phone/iPod/gadget fisically toutch the "thing".
But it still looks like a nice bed side lamp...
I am portuguese. If you think my written english is bad, try posting in portuguese!
A: Where is everyone getting $250? The article says the small pad will cost 30-40.
B: My last trip I took
An MP3 player
A Cell Phone
A Phone
A handheld MIDI sequencer
A Nintendo DS
A Digital Camera
I would gladly pay 40 dollars to have something that charges EVERYTHING I have and will have. This is especially true if it is one solid piece rather than dozens of little connectors to get lost and confused. As it stood I remembered the charger to half of my electronics, but still found my cell phone turned off most of the trip to conserve the prescious charge.
The more wired homes get, the more wire management becomes a big issue. Being able to simplify down from 10 incompatible, random voltage wall-warts to 1 charging pad is a big help in that battle. 40 for that sounds totally reasonable.
The ______ Agenda
I can't see the point of this, since it introduces a pad which we have to find a place for and yet another wall wart to plug in. Utterly pointless.
A better idea... how about making it so we could quick-charge our devices by putting it in the microwave oven for a minute or two? Microwave ovens would be a really good source of high-power EM fields and we wouldn't have to have *yet another* device in our homes.
-- Marcio
so that the forces of common sense may prevail over those of narrowmindedness
Tesla had patents for wireless power 100+ years ago. Why is this considered "new"?
Could be worse. There are winding machines for self-winding watches. Little powered turntables. Really.
I have an ancient Braun toothbrush from the 90's - still working because I've dismantled and replaced the NiCad battery more than once - that uses the same "inductive" technique to recharge it. It has a tiny coil in the base of the toothbrush, and a larger "primary" coil in the holder being fed by AC.
It's a deconstructed TRANSFORMER, nothing more.
Heck, for that matter, I lately bought an "inductive" cooktop... which I understand has been all the rage in non-USA parts of the world for some time.
So what exactly is new and unique about this?
Mark
My toothbrush charges in a similar way. You have to put it onto its base but there are no electrical contacts which leads me to presume it is done by inductance just like a transformer, with one coil in the base and another in the toothbrush.
I wonder how energy efficient this is. You get better efficiency by having the coils closer together, which is why the coils in a transformer are likely interlaced (forgive the lack of technical knowledge). Which means by default there is going to be more energy loss in a system where the coils could be millimetres (or more) apart. That's fine on a small scale, but when you have potentially millions of mobile phones and other devices, that could add up to a LOT of wasted energy.
Given that the parent company is relatively small and not established, articles posted on Slashdot could potentially have huge effects on their market preception. Wouldn't the comment that their product causes brain cancer be considere libelous with potentially large damages at stake (since, AFAIK, there's no proof that it causes brain cancer)?