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Flexible, Plastic Sheets of Power
bethr writes "Imagine never having to plug in an electronic device to get power? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have demonstrated prototype plastic sheets with copper coils that wirelessly supply power to any device that touches its surface. You just put down your laptop and the pad sends it power: 'An array of organic transistors that detect the position of the gadget and direct current flow.' Apparently, the researchers had enough time to create a spiffy video of their doll house model, complete with a mini Christmas tree, showing off the technology."
Isn't this kind of like Slashpads?
How efficient are these compared to regular adapter + cable? The lack of a magnetic core may mean your utilities bill goes up x2.
Concept...you know - an idea that prompts another idea, as an example?
.79c socket matured decades ago, and will willingly flow power to any conductor able to penetrate one of the hot slots. And despite your very rigid non-stated Edwardian beliefs and desire to put-down something that falls outside that dormant little box you live in, these sheets won't be available @ HD any time soon at any price, so put away the fud and go back to reading by candle light :)
Your
They are simply another proof-of-concept...something the Japanese love to put on display, of course. I can imagine being able to lay devices on such a device to charge my cell-phone, etc. - anything needing charging...flashlite; iPod; bluetooth headphones; police radio; personal vibrator; PDA...a circuit to detect and communicate with whatever is in contact would be trivial, and an obvious part of any marketable product. You could drop conductors on it all day long, including water, and without a controller to initiate power to the contact zone, nada. Lick it for all it cares.
Recall the topic here recently about China and South Korea moving to standardized chargers? This falls into the same area, being concept-driven, as it seems to be. Additional/separate & wired chargers would be 'standardized' (as in gone) because they would not be needed with something like this around. The charger-less product would then sell for less, since your home or apartment or hotel room or office desk or car/boat/plane/train armrest would already have one of these built-in.
Nicola Tesla would be proud...
Indeed. He wanted to "charge up" the entire planet such that you didn't need wires. I don't think they worried much about environmental movements back then.
Table-ized A.I.
Here's a few things I'd like to apply this stuff too.
... power strip stuff.
1) Wireless mouse pad
2) Magnetic track-type lighting
3) Stove top -- Pots/pans/ect would have their own unique heating elements & the entire stove top would be usable
I'm sure there's plenty of practical applications for somthing like that plastic power...
4) Power strips with 100% usable surface area.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Apparently a lot of readers don't understand what induction is, and that this power pad works off that principle. Power isn't routed to a device on top of the pad like many people seem to think. There's no electrical contact between the power source and the device on top of the pad. The device in need of power will have a coil of wire. The power pad will detect where on the pad the device is and then create a virtual coil of wire underneath the device. The two coils of wire do not touch, but they are near enough each other that they create and air-core transformer. In other words, AC current traveling in the pad's coil will electro-magnetically INDUCE an AC current in the device's coil. This is really, really old science. The problem is that in order to transfer a significant amount of power efficiently, the two coils have to be closely coupled to one another. This means that the power pad's coil has to have a small cross-section and be located directly under the device to be powered. By detecting where the device is with, say, a pressure sensor, and then using semiconductors to dynamically route a current in a virtual coil directly underneath the device, this power pad allows for the device to be placed haphazardly in virtually any location on top of the pad. This is the same principle that Sonicare toothbrushes use to charge, but imagine now being able to put the toothbrush anywhere on the counter to charge instead of inside a dedicated charging station.
Why should I have X different chargers for my wireless devices? Imagine your desk if this was build into the table... your phone don't need a wire, wireless mice charge no matter where they are located, your keyboard always works, your PDA is charged when placed on the table and so is your laptop. You could have wires for all these things, but if I could avoid having x numbers of cradles and loose wires on my table, I would like that even more. And as I type this, I could imagine other things: Wireless hard disk (with wireless USB) and wireless desktop speakers, just to keep it in the nerd world and what about your desk lamp and the LCD picture frame :-) And you thought that I was done there? When a friend comes over and discovers that his phone is low on battery and your phone charger doesn't fit? Imagine your friend to be able bring "anything" without having to bring any wires at all.
This will also solve allot of the cable clutter under the table. Just think of all the things on your table that needs power and then imagine them without wires... Imagine this build into the walls - your speakers, tv and lights didn't need wires! Well, I don't know how it reacts to a nail, but there might be solutions for this too, like having a device that can sense where these things are placed, so you can go around them with your nails and screws.
Surely I can't be the only one excited about the possibilities with this kind freedom you can have?