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Wireless Power Group Sees Standard Within 6 Months
alphadogg writes "The group developing a standard for wireless charging expects to complete its first specification within six months, opening the door for makers of cell phones, digital cameras and other devices to bring compatible products to market. Wireless charging lets consumers place gadgets on a mat that plugs into a wall outlet, and have the devices recharge automatically without needing to plug in each one. Apart from the gee-whiz factor, it's supposed to make life more convenient by letting people walk into their home or office, toss their gadgets onto a mat to recharge and forget about them."
This opens up a wide range of opportunities.... much like microwaves. See what happens when you put other shit on the mat.
Like a lump of really conductive metal.
Or a baby
SQL programmer goes to a bar. Walks up to two tables and says 'Excuse me, may I join you?'.
Charging mats will recognize when a device is fully charged and then consume a trickle of energy in standby mode
Okay thats interesting. We all use wireless (inductive) power in other places and while, yeah, the cheap plugpack segment is mostly switchmode now I wonder if there are places where the efficency of transformers could be improved with a digital back channel which says send me this much power.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Great, another place where my phone can be stolen.
We've tried doing this with physical plugs to no avail, even if one half conforms to a standard there will always be a few very popular device manufacturers -cough- Apple -cough- who will break the trend and inconvenience a large amount of users.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The group developing a standard for wireless charging expects to complete its first specification within six months, opening
the door for makers of cell phones, digital cameras and other devices to bring compatible products to market.
Wireless charging lets consumers place gadgets on a mat that plugs into a wall outlet, and have the devices recharge automatically
without needing to plug in each one. Apart from the gee-whiz factor, it's supposed to make life more convenient by letting
people walk into their home or office, toss their gadgets onto a mat to recharge and forget about them.
There are still questions about when standardized products will come to market and how they'll be received, but the Wireless
Power Consortium aims to finish its first standard before the middle of the year, said Menno Treffers, a Philips executive
who is chairman of the consortium. If it's not ready by then, "I will eat my hat," he told a group of vendors at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday.
The consortium has 27 members including Nokia, Research In Motion, Philips, Sanyo, Samsung Electronics, Energizer and Hewlett-Packard, as well as component
and wireless-power technology companies such as Texas Instruments and Fulton Innovation.
The standard is for a technology called magnetic induction, in which power is transferred between metal coils built into the
device and the charging mat when they are placed close to each other. The standard is for delivering up to 5 watts of power,
which covers most smaller devices. A further standard will be needed for laptops and larger products. "We want to start on
that as soon as possible, but for now we don't want to dilute our engineering efforts," Treffers said.
Consumers will know which products are compliant because they'll carry the consortium's "Qi" logo (pronounced "chee" after the Chinese for life force). Initial products are likely to come bundled with a small charging mat
of their own, but if the technology takes off other companies are likely to sell mats that can charge multiple devices at
once.
Several wireless power products are already in the market, including a Nintendo accessory from Energizer for recharging Wii
game controllers, a Dell Latitude Z business laptop that can be recharged by placing it on a stand, and products from Powermat
for charging phones and other devices. Bosch has shown power tools that are recharged by laying them on a workshelf.
But a standard is seen as important to wider adoption because it ensures that devices will interoperate. Until it arrives,
some vendors won't release any further products. "We're done for now until the standard is complete," said Serge Traylor,
brand manager for charging and rechargeable systems with Energizer. When the standard is done, Energizer will release a mat
for charging as many as two devices, for about $100, and charging sleeves for iPhone and Blackberry devices, for $30 to $40,
he said.
The standardization effort faces several challenges, though. Powermat, one of the leading wireless power companies, has not
joined the consortium and is selling products using its own technology, which Treffers acknowledged could create confusion
in the market.
Some of the most popular gadget makers also are not on board, including Apple. "I have not heard from them," Treffers said.
He admitted also that the public may have concer
From TFA:
"Consumers will know which products are compliant because they'll carry the consortium's "Qi" logo (pronounced "chee" after the Chinese for life force). Initial products are likely to come bundled with a small charging mat of their own, but if the technology takes off other companies are likely to sell mats that can charge multiple devices at once."
Why do they have to keep using 2 letter acronyms for everything? These days two people discussing technology sound like a couple of idiots:
Do you have a Qi Wii?
No, but I got myself a Qi WiFi WiDi.
The article mentions "The standard is for delivering up to 5 watts of power, which covers most smaller devices. "
This sounds like a pretty low limit to me. My iPhone charger delivers 5 watts and it takes hours before it's charged. Now imagine you buy one of those matts and your family or colleagues throw their phones on the matt as well. At the end of the day, they might not even be charged!
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
I don't really see the point. As long as you have to put the device in a specific location anyway, I don't see that it's much of an improvement over having to connect it with your charger. You have to connect it with a location just the same, with this new tech, just the plug is different (a pad vs a plug).
Wake me when you have a tech that charges my mobile from the moment I step in my home door and leave my mobile in my jacket pocket hanging in the foyer.
Until that use case can be satisfied, I think this is just the same-old, same-old.
6 months until another meaningless, vaporware standard.
Seriously, doesn't anyone quite grasp the concept that wireless = radiated signal?
Not saying anything negative, just asking why we give a shit when it will be *years* until this tech is actually in a wide-spread, usuable format?
0100010001101001011001 0100100000011010010110 1110001000000110000100 1000000110011001101001 0111001001100101
And how do I charge it when I'm somewhere else?
Oh. Use a plug-in charger? Um... So, what's the point here?
How about standardizing on a USB charging interface?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
seriously he gets upset about wifi and a cellphone imagine this.
With all the /. users saying "this is going to be pointless," and "it's already easy enough as it is," this is sure to be a hit.
Wireless Charging has been invented already. A Company in Finland has done it http://www.powerkiss.com/ The invention recenlty won an award from EUWIIN http://www.euwiin.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79
Ever notice that on TV commercials that compare the advertised brand to a "brand X" the person with the advertised brand makes smart choices and has a good time while the person using BRAND X makes dumb choices and suffers. Invariably it's a white male who uses brand X and a woman or a minority who makes the smart choice. Or if they're both women, the white woman makes the dumb choice and the minority is the smart one. Now just ask yourself, if everyone is truly equal then why is there such a deep psychological need to engineer even advertising this way? Or when the ad shows a boardroom of a corporation, it's one white woman, a few black males, a few asian women, maybe a hispanic man. Any white males shown are clearly subordinate to the boss who is in one of the "protected" categories. If everyone is truly so equal why must they work so hard to convince us that it is so? Do you guys think such blatant manipulation and social engineering is alright as long as you approve of its purpose? Do the ends justify the means? If so, why don't they openly admit they do this on purpose?
Besides seeming to be not much of big deal convenience-wise, is this a "green" technology or is it a power leach drawing power even when it's not being used. What is the ratio of input power to power actually charging a device?
Back in the late 50s, I ran a several turn loop around my bedroom and created a "Halo coil" with many turns on a set of monaural headphones so I could have cordless headphones for listening to my shortwave radio. It worked, but wasn't particularly efficient.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Think about the power needed to keep mobile phones loaded with applications working though the day. It would be okay if you could be stuffed plugging it into USB whenever you sat down but thats too hard. But if you can drop it on to a charging pad from time to time the battery need never go down.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I don't really see the point. As long as you have to put the device in a specific location anyway, I don't see that it's much of an improvement over having to connect it with your charger. You have to connect it with a location just the same, with this new tech, just the plug is different (a pad vs a plug).
Putting it in a specific location is good because you know where your device is (next to your wallet and keys). You're also assuming you'll only have one pad.
Have a small pad on your night stand (perhaps incorporated into an alarm clock) to charge your cell phone overnight (if you're on-call and need quick access for 3 AM). Quartz watches can start having rechargeable batteries. If you pick up your device(s) when you leave in the morning, and place them down when you come in the evening, you'll have used the device between 8-12 hours. Then you can leave it there overnight for 12-16 hours worth of charging if you don't go out for the evening.
Have a similar pad in your car to charge your devices. Another at work, perhaps integrated in a desk lamp or as part of the base of an LCD monitor.
In the bathroom have a similar pad for recharging cordless shavers and toothbrushes. Have one for the remote control(s) and your cordless phone. Also the wireless remote control for console games, and pads for Bluetooth or RF mice.
Also 5W is simply the beginning. Nothing says later revisions won't be able to go higher.
If something like that will happen, I can imagine neighborhood teenagers suspiciously lounging about near your place. Because their newest cell phones will be recharged for free :)
Of course you can lock down "over the air" emissions by shielding that room... but it means your cell, while charging, won't be able to receive/place calls. Which would require a femtocell inside that charging room, which makes it all even more expensive.
So... please pull your gadgets out of the pocket and put them on the mat for now. :)
Thanks
Hyperom.com
This will be a huge boon to me.. One of my hobbies is underwater photography, and as anyone who does that will testify, you always have a nervous moment when you immerse the camera and housing at the start of a dive..
This is because you have to seal the camera in a housing, sealed by a multitude of o-rings, each of which need to be cleaned and re-greased every time you open the housing. When you put the o-rings back in place, you have to look carefully for a hair, or a speck of grit or dirt, or anything that could compromise the seal in any way. If you mess up (even a single hair can cause a seal failure), you'll have a lovely view of rising water in your camera housing, and you camera will be so much junk (and you may kill the electronics in the housing too, which is expensive as well!)..
This can really put a crimp in a holiday (no more photography for you! And you did have it insured, didn't you??)..
There are really only two common reasons to crack a housing open.. To take the memory card out and back it up, and to recharge the camera/strobe batteries after a dive..
As you need to recharge after most dives, nobody's really bothered much with wireless data transmission, but if you can wirelessly recharge, it's simple to add wireless data transfer too, so you'll not have to crack the case 'till you want to change the lens (which isn't too common most of the time) or strip it for cleaning (you could probably get away with once or twice a holiday, if that).. Much safer!
How efficient are these matts? Last I heard they were only 50% efficient. Does that mean that if I leave this thing plugged in all the time, it's "waisting" energy?
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
If the public is already afraid of living near power lines (100yds away), what makes these manufacturers think that having a bunch of 'wireless power pads' is going to be any different? Or is this a case of a rabid chihuahua is no threat due to its size?
Game controllers, wireless mice/keyboards/etc. A lot of obvious applications, and we'll all have to buy new stuff to use it. Yeah I'm guessing this will be popular.
... but every time they call each other, the calls go straight to voice mail, as if the phones are never turned on. weird.
It will be much easier to make a device more rugged (also mobile phones looking otherwise quite stylish; check Nokia 3720 classic) if it doesn't need to have any plugs.
This for power, Bluetooth/etc. for connectivity.
One that hath name thou can not otter
That sounds awfully inconvenient if you're trying to take a call. Perhaps instead of having one large mat that all the phones have to lie on top of, you could split it up into smaller inductors, put a layer of velco on each, and wire them to extend up to 3 feet from the central hub. Your cell, of course, would have a corresponding velcro patch, and if you needed to make a call, you just pick it up and call, without having to worry about running out of power on a quarter-charge.
I think we could call it a "tetherphone."
What will happen if a magnetic medium such as a diskette or magnetic tape is left on it? It's hard enough keeping them away from mobile phones and CRT degaussers.
The reason for this is because wireless induction charging is a lossy process. It cannot be made as efficient as wired charging. There's some basic physical realities that must be observed.
There are a great many people in this world who are ardent believers in "The Tragedy of the Commons" and "social darwinism" and "Devil take the hindmost is good for the species" to quote a few favorite chestnuts.
These people do not like the idea that you can get food, air and water without paying for it. They believe that only the hereditary aristocracy, who have been selected by capitalism itself, should ever get anything without laboring for it. Therefore, pollution is good since it makes free air and water a thing of the past; you will buy your air and water from the air and water markets, or you will die and make room for a stronger man.
Y'all think I'm raving, or that I'm trolling, or whatever you want. I have been in the room with Reaganista millionaires who have been quite frank about their objectives. They want pollution, and they are willing to buy and sell presidents like bars of soap. They love wireless power, it wastes energy. They love war in the middle east, too - it's one of the quickest ways to pour carbon into the atmosphere, and at the same time it drives up prices at home and helps legitimize coal burning. Anything that gets them closer to total destruction of all commons is considered a win.
I work in a hospital environment, where we perform "generator" changes for pace makers. When I suggested this technology to one of the pacer sales reps, he jokingly told me to "shutup". I certainly see how a charging mat can be used on an internal pacemaker to recharge the device.
the fact that this process inevitably will cost more energy than plugging the device is seems unimportant...
Privacy is terrorism.
Somebody should invent a housing with a USB plug on the outside and a short usb cord on the inside to attach to the camera...... assuming that it is possible to both charge and transfer photos via USB on your particular camera model.
It would be okay if you could be stuffed plugging it into USB whenever you sat down but thats too hard.
That’s too hard?? What kind of lazy ass are you??
*blinks*
It’s still there...
Unbelievable. That is exactly the kind of attitude, that natural selection is there to weed out.
what’s next? “Oh this walking to the toilet is too hard, so I’ll need a catheter. Or else i’m just going to piss myself.”
Un-fuckin-believable. I must save this, put it into a sig. It just blow my mind...
I”ve got a chair for you: http://www.bwass.org/bucket/idiocracy_toilet_chair.jpg
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I JUST watched this TED talk earlier this week. I have to say, the ideas and implementation in the video seem pretty damn cool to me. E.g existing models that can power flat-screen TV's and would be installed in the wall, no need for a power cord, installed in a desk to automatically charge your laptop, or (the coolest to me) in the walls of your garage to charge your plugin electric car.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html
And for us slightly less serious underwater photographers, I can imagine a nice little point-and-shoot cast in a solid block of polycarbonate. No gaskets at all-- no leaks until crush depth and catastrophic failure.
Somebody else pointed out in this article that you don't want to overuse the connectors on phones because they do eventually break. I charge my phone once a day for this reason. Thats all it is.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Why doesn't someone just add a waterproof charging power jack?? Are they ANY thinkers left?
I keep wondering what the real benefit of wireless power is for the gadget community in general. Wireless power is going to be less efficient than wired power because of simple physics. If all of these devices are now designed so that they get power over the air, then we are further wasting electricity.
I did see the mention of underwater devices that have to be completely sealed, and avoiding breaking that seal makes some sense, but for general devices that are used in the air, I see it all as a big waste of energy for a small offset in convenience. IT would be better to develop a surface mount magnetic connection that was as universal as USB. (and accepted, similar to the new cell phone charging standards)
I mean, seriously, how hard is it to come up with a standard for this?
I'll take a stab:
5 Ghz, keep power below the FCC limit for uncontrolled emission at at (1 meter or less).
Was that so hard, really?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Scott is clearly behind this. It's a cunning plan to get one of these devices into Terrance and Phillip's house and give them both head cancer.
Head cancer!
OK does any one else see this as completely nuts?
At the moment the power output is relatively low. 5 watts ish. Lets think about this. This is BROADCAST POWER. It's going to leak into everything around it. There will be no such thing as 95% efficient transfer of power. So where does this residual power go. Well into everything around it. The closer something is the more it will receive.
Very simple chemistry here. Entropy increase with energy. Entropy can simple be defined as the desire of a substance to reach it most random and natural state. ( There is probably a more accurate definition than that. ) AKA Entropy is all about things BREAKING DOWN. So if we add energy to a "thing" it ultimately will break down faster.
I'm sorry but I don't want to be walking around in yet more energy radiation fields. Especially one designed to transmit POWER AKA ENERGY.
5 watts gives way to 10 watts gives away to 25 watts gives away to stupid amounts of power. As "improvements" and legislation allow higher and higher output.
This also strikes me as the most un-green tech out there. Simply a device that radiates POWER.
It's reported to be 70% efficient. Now that we are (at last!) approaching 80..90% on switching power supplies, it was about time someone found a way to fx that :-(
There are stupid ideas, damn stupid ideas and then there is marketing.
I'd prefer mini-USB, but the crappy awkward micro-USB seems to be taking over. Oh, well... I'll be rid of it when the next "standard" comes out in a couple years.
It should be easy enough to add a sealed USB socket to the case. So you connect the USB port on the cammera to a lead which runs to the USB socket. This socket can have a waterproof cover which you remove when you want to connect to your PC/charger. It would be easy to seal the USB socket cover, as it can be round and screwed down with O-ring seals. This could be done with todays cameras - if they allowed you to charge the battery via the USB connection. You could also test the seals on the case before diving. You would need a chamber large enough to contain the camera in its case. Pressurize the chamber and watch a pressure gauge inside the case - if the gauge does not rise then you have a good seal. So what you want is a case manufacturer to build a housing with an external power/usb connector. The power could be used to charge batteries in the housing which drive any electronics in the housing, and also provide power to the camera (via its DC connector) and any strobe lights. The housing would also have a built-in pressure gauge for testing. This would probably be cheaper than buying a new camera, and could be applied to any existing camera.
Ooooohhhhhh. Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.
I know this is a late response, but I didn't see it in the children comments:
USB is capable of delivering 5V at 1A, or 5W of power, per port in its maximum configuration. This is likely where the spec came from, since most manufacturers are moving towards the mini-usb as a power source. By providing the current standard limit, most device designs will already conform downstream of the induction coil. They've simply designed to the marketplace.
What they didn't necessarily consider is that it would be great if we could get 10-20W out of a charger to get this !@#$% charged a little faster. Especially things like phones, which can take a significant fraction of that 5W to operate under heavy use conditions.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
High end cameras (the kind you'd be really worried about) generally have separate battery packs that recharge on a conditioning charger. They don't charge in-camera because no professional in their right mind is going to dock their camera for any length of time - they swap and go. There are options for studio photogs that will continuously power the cameras, but studio and underwater really aren't overlapping.
Interestingly, the housings already cost as much as (or more than) the camera itself. I just picked up a Nikon D3 on the used market for $2500 (offically for work), and the housings for them are north of $3-4k (a new D3s is $5300). I'll be sticking with my Fuji F30 and housing for holiday snaps of the fishes!
FWIW, a pressure gauge might not be terribly useful without a pretty heavy duty test rig. You can't test for external pressure without putting the housing in a second housing. You don't want to test in reverse (not all o-ring seals are reversable, it's based on groove geometry), and even if you were foolish enough to pull a vacuum on the casing it would still only be one atmosphere - which is likely 25-35% of the pressure differential on a "normal" dive.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
And Mandarin has so many homonyms to have fun with, especially if you drop the tones ...
Just ask CHAO Yuen Ren.
Just saw this earlier this week...A guy named Eric Giler demoed wireless powering of a commercially available flat-screen TV, as well as cell phones.
This seems really cool to me, especially a few implementations mentioned in the talk (and/or TFA)--installation of larger panels inside walls to automatically power devices simply present in the room, installed in desks for laptops, installed in garage walls or floors to charge plugin electric cars.
If you can use SDHC cards, you can get easy wireless data xfer with an EyeFi card. I didn't believe in them 'till I got one. Now I'm never going back.