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Microsoft Researchers Use Light Beams To Charge Smartphones
angry tapir writes A group of Microsoft researchers has built a prototype charger for smartphones that can scan a room until it locates a mobile device compatible with the system and then charge the handset using a light beam. The researchers say they can achieve efficiency comparable to conventional wired phone chargers. The biggest barrier? Smartphones don't (yet) come with solar panels attached.
Somehow I think they mean the case where the units of measure are the same not that the numbers are even remotely close. Just the overhead of operating the image processing system is going to make certain this is the case.
...to zap smartphones with a beam of light whenever they are not properly silenced.
1. Would infrared work just as well?
2. What happens if the phone orientation is incorrect? Light beam reaches its side or the phone lies face-up.
3. What happens if multiple phones are detected?
4. What happens if the phone is turned off?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
If the charger can see your phone, it's not in your pocket or purse. So if you're not carrying it around, just stick it on a window ledge (for a much shorter time) or under an incandescent light source (we still have them, eh?)
This also would not be for use outside the home - leaving it hang around to charge is a good way to lose it. Chargers are cheap - bring one to the office and everyone will love you when their phone is dying :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Is "a laser capable of emitting a beam of pure anti-matter".
And he said: "Phone, Where art thou?".
Whereupon a light emerged; shining upon it like a divine revelation.
And he saw that it was charging.
http://cdn.computerworld.com.a...
That's the sort of thing one of my bosses would draw up in two minutes and say "See? Only eight boxes. It's easy. Now you go and make it work in half a day."
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
How ~70% efficiency is comparable to 4% efficiency.
I guess what they meant was time to charge.
I remember experimenting with wireless energy transfer with light back in my high school tech lab, so its not exactly a new idea. The emitter box was about the size of a 20 oz pop bottle sent a red laser into a receiver that that was about the size of a deck of cards. But with more up to date technology and some ingenuity they might be able to make it work for handheld devices. Despite the article I don't think solar panels on phones are the way to go, a very tight beam into a very small receiver (think about something similar to a second "camera lens" on your phone)is what my experience with the technology has been.
The charger constantly rotates its camera and takes pictures until it finds a phone.
now airports will be crowed with people holding their phones up to lights instead of trying to scrounge every available outlet in the place to charge their phones. Imagine everybody with their arms raised.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
TFA says: "Using a light beam to charge a smartphone could be as quick as many wired chargers, the researchers found, depending on the size of the PV panel."
Efficiency is going to depend on the efficiency of the PV panel in the phone, but at 20% it's a long way off from the efficiency of a wired charger.
The lengths to which people will go to avoid plugging in a wire still amaze me.
Seems Microsoft fired the wrong people from the research department in the recent HR clean out.
IMHO it is impossible to even come close to the efficinecy of a wire.
With transformation losses and heat etc. the wire is still certainly above 85% efficiency.
On the other hand, creating light is already below or at 85% efficiency and transforming it back to current with the very best 'solar cells' is at 48%. So bottom line we are minimum below 42%. That is less than half of the efficiency of a wire, without counting any further losses after the solar panel.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Your average solar cells have to cope with a wide array of incoming EM radiation to create their electricity, such a devices receiver (either panels or other) would presumably be tuned specifically to the emitters (light or laser) wavelengths. That should allow for much more efficient energy transfer.
Shatter resistant glass and the proper cases make our electronics almost completely preschooler proof. However if the thing is plugged into the wall and they want to move it, the charging cable does not come out in any way that could possibly be called gentle. The Qi chargers look great on TV except that they can't charge through the protective cases. Why in the world they don't put a conductive material in the case so that it could, I don't know. Magnetic plugs would seem to go a long way. I've heard rumor that they may get incorporated into the USB standard.
You can subscribe to groceries at Amazon. I travel regularly for business. Wish they could include two micro-USB cables with my food delivery. Fortunately, they are now for sale in most airports for around $20. Business people end up paying that price now and again. Leisure travelers walk around begging to borrow one.
What will MS research do next? Maybe create an OS?
This sounds like a first stage prototype, I highly doubt the final product (if there ever is one) will bother to use cameras which require a significant amount of processing and programming. I would imagine it would use infrared light pulses or something as a beacon on the device to be charged while the charger would use something akin to a sensor bar you would find on a Wii.
Is it really so much of a brain-drain to plug your phone in to charge it everyday that we have to be wasting our time on stuff like this?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Is it really so much of a brain-drain to plug your phone in to charge it everyday that we have to be wasting our time on stuff like this?
How about we just make the phones more efficient so we don't need to charge things so much in the first place. Remember when handheld devices ran for weeks on a pair of AAA batteries?
So if I put a picture of a phone on some other object, like the cat... ... and then program the indoor drone to attack the illuminated object...
Seriously, just agree on a standard dock with conductive contacts that's easy to drop your phone on. How hard is that? The EU effectively made manufacturers agree on compatibility with microUSD.
Want to decrease your carbon footprint in a sane, achievable fashion? ... at all levels.
Stop WASTING resources
And 'remote' charging is so wasteful the mind boggles that it is done merely in the name of convenience.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.