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Digital Camera Powered By a Fuel Cell
An anonymous reader notes a development from the world of photography that could spread to notebooks and cell phones. Canon has filed for a patent on a fuel cell-powered DSLR. The fuel cell would power not only the camera body but also all accessories attached to it, doing away with the need to power flashes (for example) with AA or other batteries. The patent covers other electronic devices generally, but is clearly directed toward DSLR cameras, given the diagrams and examples used. "Canon continues to push its fuel cell development by devising a method for powering not only the internal DSLR body electronics, but also external components such as lenses and hotshoe flashes."
How about an option to vent fuel vapor across the contacts for a really big flash?
I have a digital camera powered by a steam engine. And it is portable too (depending on rail locations)!
This totally beats my pull-start diesel camera! But really, how is this so much better than a really high end lithium polymer rechargeable battery? They're like 5AH minimum which is a ridiculous amount of flashes and when they run out any outlet anywhere can recharge them. As for fuel cells, you better have special ordered a new one if you run out cuz you can't recharge it like a lithium one or run to a gas station to get more like AAs.
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this is nuts. how is this patentable? i use canon dslr, but this is ridiculous. anyone have prior art?
Ethanol based fuel cells would seem to be perfect for this equipment, based on some professional photographers I've met in the past.
"One for you," pours vodka into the camera. "And one for me," while pouring some vodka into self. Rinse, repeat.
Unless they have a new type of fuel cell, what gives them the ability to patent "using a fuel cell in a camera". A fuel cell is basically a new kind of battery. There should be no need for a separate patent for each type of device somebody decides to put one in.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
"The patent covers other electronic devices generally, but is clearly directed toward DSLR cameras, given the diagrams and examples used."
Canon and Nikon et al are pillars of openness and are renowned for sharing their technology freely. This will in no way hinder the adoption of fuel cell technology in electronic devices at all.
*cough*
The fuel cell would power not only the camera body but also all accessories attached to it
looking at the picture I'm pretty sure that's not what the patent covers. Instead all accessory will include it's own fuel cell.
The patent is about distributing the H2 to the different attachments.
A camera? The power consumptions on a camera are small, what is really needed is a Cell phone or Laptop powered by this beast.
As with fuel cell powered laptops, I have to wonder how exactly I would get this through airport security.
Big tubes of toothpaste and sticks of deodorant get confiscated, but they're going to let me waltz through toting a canister of (m)ethanol?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
The summary is incorrect - this is a patent application. It has not yet been examined in any way shape or form. I can't give my own opinion of patentability because I am an examiner, but I can say that due to obviousness requirements produced by KSR v. Teleflex the combination of a known object (such as a power source) to another known object (such as a camera) for the same purpose as provided by the original object (such as providing power) is considered obvious - and therefore not patentable.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
It'll break 1 month out of warranty and it will be more expensive and be a few generations behind the competition's offerings. Canon is overrated crap IME.
"as a patent examiner, I'm not allowed to post my opinion of patentability, but I will say that most cases are heavily modified from their original application form as this one is in now."
and yet... one-click. I wonder, and fear, what the original application for that was if the resulting 'heavily modified application'-based patent is still what it is now.
Fuel cells have been available for years. Why would putting one in a camera be patentable any more then getting a patent on using AA batteries in such a camera? I mean, it's just the freaking power source!
If Canon just put a fuelcell camera on the market, that action would actually advance fuelcell technology across our industrial society. Just patenting it does nothing but stop everyone else from taking that step.
--
make install -not war
...while we're talking about exciting new technology that's been "around the corner" for years now.
Not until I see a fuel cell working I'll believe it.
And have they solved that annoying water dripping effect from condensation on the lenses?
Some of us don't carry de-fogging equipment around with us.
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Big Fsking Wow! Get a patent for replacing a battery with a fuel cell. I'd hope that the Patent office has more brains than this.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Everyone has a conveniently located methane port, just plug in and snap away!
Imagine where batteries and consumer electronics were if any combination of lithium-ion/lead-acid/alkaline/... battery and camera/camcorder/radio/television/ipod/... were patented.
Even attempting to patent something like this is an outrage.
I am a fuel-cell researcher and when I RTFA'd I gasped—it seems they want to run this on hydrogen. They must be kidding. Normal H2 fuel cells run at about 80 C and require a hell of good cooling. Portable electronics is the domain of passive direct-methanol FCs.
Good luck selling people a can of explosive pressurised gas they have to hold close to their body, and a machine that has to heat up to 80 Celsius before it starts delivering power.
Anyway, I fail to see the inventive step in the camera. Fuel cells are not new. This type in particular does not seem new. The only new thing is that they stuffed it into a camera. Doesn't that qualify for trivial? Or can I file a patent for FC-powered drills and mixers?
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Hydrogen bombs are the Next Logical Step in blowing up the customer.
Here are a list of the claims from the patent application. They are clearly trying to patent fuel supply control to multiple fuel cells.
1. An electronic equipment system comprising:an electronic equipment body;a connection device connected to the electronic equipment body;independent power generation cells each disposed to the electronic equipment body and to the connection device; anda fuel storage vessel disposed to the electronic equipment body,wherein fuel from the fuel storage vessel is suppliable to each of the independent power generation cells.
2. The electronic equipment system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic equipment body comprises a fuel control unit for controlling an amount of the fuel supplied to each of the independent power generation cells from the fuel storage vessel.
3. The electronic equipment system according to claim 2, wherein the fuel control unit controls the fuel supply amount depending on a fuel consumption amount in each of the independent power generation cells.
4. The electronic equipment system according to claim 3, wherein the electronic equipment body comprises a unit for detecting the fuel consumption amount.
5. The electronic equipment system according to claim 4, wherein the electronic equipment body comprises an image display portion for displaying a remaining amount of the fuel in the fuel storage vessel based on a detection result of the unit for detecting the fuel consumption amount.
6. The electronic equipment system according to claim 1, which is a camera system, wherein the connection device connected to a camera body is at least one of an interchangeable lens and a strobe light, and wherein as the independent power generation cells, a body power generation cell, a lens driving power generation cell, and a strobe light power generation cell are disposed to the camera body, the interchangeable lens, and the strobe light, respectively.
The alcohol becomes useless at about 30 proof. By a staggering coincidence this is just about right for drinking.
I'm going out to buy shares in companies which produce "scotch" flavoring.
No sig today...
Good luck getting *that* past the TSA and onto an airplane.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
They didn't apply for a patent using a fuel cell in a DSLR. What they applied for a patent on was a method of powering a device from a bunch of fuel cells in sequence, so that a large current draw is spread among the cells and each cell has time to recover to full voltage even under load.
Pretty gushy article: "Essentially, Canon wants its fuel cell to power everything you attach to your camera. Thatâ(TM)s right. No more AA batteries to stuff into your camera bag."
Yep, no more AA batteries, you'll just need to stuff little bottles of something like lighter fluid or butane or alcohol into your camera bag. And in order for those little bottles to be safe and not freak out TSA, they'll have to be fairly well-designed little gadgets.
And they'll need to clip neatly and securely into the camera. I betcha Canon and Nikon and Olympus will all have different and incompatible fuel canisters... and probably Canon will have different fuel canisters for different camera models. And if you don't buy a bunch and you do run out, the local camera store in the strange city will stock the fuel canisters for current models but not for your three-year-old model... and you'll need to shell out $129.95 for the adapter kit that lets you refill them from a propane cylinder, which, of course, you'll have to stuff into your gadget bag, too.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
We should petition Nikon to create and start producing cameras with displays based on the LSD technology.
I have a feeling a move like that would revolutionize photography.
Or better yet - LSD based optics. Instant surrealist photos.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
As someone who owns 2 DSLRs I think this isn't the right market. DSLRs are ridiculously power effecient. You can get 1000 shots maybe w/o charging a battery. I don't know how that turns to pro studio use but for me on vacation that's around 3-4 days. I can certainly stomach charging the battery at night or every 3 days.
The market is the prosumer camera that uses the LCD for framing and focus. That eats a lot of battery, but then does someone's mom taking pictures at a birthday party need a hydrogen fuel cell battery? As other people have pointed out, I don't think that's the right application for this technology.
...a method for powering not only the internal DSLR body electronics, but also external components such as lenses...
Do there even exist SLR lenses today which are not powered by the camera?
Please tell me this isn't innovative because they're actually suggesting something as incredibly stupid as piping hydrogen to another set of electrodes inside the other devices.
I don't get it... Why's this story in "Your rights online"?
Couple a model aircraft engine to the generator out of one of those hand-crank radios.
I don't think you'd be allowed to use it on a plane, though, and it might be a little hard to get through airport security.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
> I betcha Canon and Nikon and Olympus will all have different and incompatible fuel
> canisters... and probably Canon will have different fuel canisters for different camera
> models.
Hey, it worked for printers.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I can say that the idea of one fuel cell powering the camera, AF lenses, flash and attached slave devices is awesome. Not sure how it would recharge though, would the space saved by eliminating AA batteries from the camera bag be taken up with charging cables etc?
File a patent on using a fuel cell for every electric device you can think of.
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You'd think their chemists could convince them that all they needed was to go down the column of alkali metals-- or heck, slip some high explosive in there for a bigger bang, but I guess their minds were still on the Hindenburg.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
stupid idea. The fuel is methanol?! hmm I see an increase in the production of crystal meth if this is introduced.
Ok I can't be the only one to see this as a potential problem. Technology wise I love the idea of hydrogen batteries.(aka fuel cells) but I think they might stop me from boarding a plane with it.