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Sony Patent Could Let You Wirelessly Charge Your Phone From Another Device (digitaltrends.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the peer-to-peer dept.

One of the biggest downsides to wireless charging is the wire necessary to actually charge your device. You generally need to place your wireless charging-enabled device on a compatible charger, which needs to be plugged into a wall. Well, Sony hopes to make the process of wireless charging a bit easier as it has applied for a patent that will allow you to wirelessly charge your phone straight from someone else's phone. Digital Trends reports: The feature could be very useful. Sure, an ideal situation would be if you had access to a power outlet whenever you needed it, but the fact is we've all experienced being out and about and running out of battery. With Sony's new tech, you could essentially just "steal" power from a friend who might have a slightly more charged up device than you. The patent filling itself was discovered by What Future, and the report notes that the tech may not be limited to phones. Instead, Sony could apply it to things like fridges, microwaves, TVs, computers, and really any kind of electronic device. The idea here is that all of you home devices could eventually become sources of wireless energy -- so your phone will almost always be charging if you're at home, without the need for wires.

36 comments

  1. A.B.C by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Always Be Charging

    1. Re:A.B.C by msauve · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Welcome to Patents 3.0.

      Now, instead of patenting "X, but with a computer", they can take all those old patents and create new "X, but with a phone" ones. Hurray!

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:A.B.C by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      And I wonder how this is really worth getting a patent for, it's a pretty normal procedure that many with a laptop has been using for years now.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    3. Re:A.B.C by msauve · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure the transfer of Coulombs was the basis for the very first work with electricity. Describing the source and destination isn't a legitimate subject for patent.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  2. No, it wouldn't... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It would allow Sony to charge one of their phones with another sony device....

  3. Beamforming? by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they mean using beamforming to wirelessly charge from a distance, that's one thing.

    Applying a "new" inductive charger patent to "devices around the home" would just be Qi. For that matter, putting that on a phone isn't novel enough to patent, just stupid.

    1. Re:Beamforming? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're underestimating how stupid our patent examiners are and how eager they are to approve anything that crosses their desk.

    2. Re:Beamforming? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stupid like a fox!

      I'm looking at this document from the 18th Century that we US-ians are supposed to be following, and, uh, it specifies "authors" and "inventors". Oh, and "for a limited time". Huh. Must be a typo. Or maybe someone's quill glitched out, because there's no clause about granting these privileges to businesses organized for tax purposes, or foreign corporations, for all eternity. Well I'll be gobsmacked, there's also nothing about that stupendously imaginary right to hoard, acquire or resell tax-funded intellectual property protection. Or the possibility of authors and inventors to be coerced into relinquishing their RIGHTS, under guise of "work for hire", or any other farce. Or setting patent fees purposely out of the reach of the commoners. Yeah, you know it's almost as if those old geezers intended--oh, I don't know--solely -=** THE PEOPLE **=- who invent and create things to enjoy intellectual property protection for only a little while.

      Okay, everyone take off your special sunglasses. Time to go back to sleep. SLEEP. OBEY. CONSUME.

  4. Aren't lawyers amazing? by hey! · · Score: 1

    The patent allows you to charge your device from another device... and I'd have sworn you'd need some kind of actual hardware to do something like that.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re: Aren't lawyers amazing? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      There you go challenging the Newspeak again. Your adherence to reality is a threat to our society.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  5. Steal someones chae by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a great prank. Stand kind of close to someone as your vampiric phone slowly drains their phone of its lifeblood.

  6. Catering to laziness more than not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The idea here is that all of you home devices could eventually become sources of wireless energy" - I think you mean always-on consumers of...

  7. Such a waste by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    Just plug it in and stop wasting energy.

  8. Re: Republicans love wireless charging... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My charger was about 50% efficient so I understand their ban. I just miss being able to use it since it was safe to use on the rain which is important here in Seattle. I now have a plugin car that some days doesn't charge since it flips its breaker. That never happened with the illegal Mange Charger.

  9. Share my juice? No way. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's never enough.

  10. so now you can have a node 7 blowup with X2 by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    so now you can have a node 7 blowup with X2 the power!

    1. Re:so now you can have a node 7 blowup with X2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, If you could blow up 7 nodes via wireless transmissions, it would make for an interesting day at the local data center / IT lab.

  11. Siphoning by mentil · · Score: 1

    Now instead of siphoning gasoline for your car, you can siphon electricity for your smartphone, and then hail an Uber. Progress!

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  12. Whether they like it or not! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK, vampire phones!

  13. Re: Republicans love wireless charging... by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    In Seattle I use a 300baud modem and I got fired from my QA position when they laid off their entire QA department. Now I work as a maintenance man. I also don't like the Charter.

  14. Prior art. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I already can charge my phone from another device. The other device is called a "bat-ter-y". It's patent-pending!

  15. First we have to repeal a law ... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    So just bring the phone home and it will wirelessly charge from the fridge! Yay! great technology, but we need to first repeal the inverse square law.

    120 years ago Tesla tried wireless power delivery. If only we had acted together and repealed the inverse square law ...

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re: First we have to repeal a law ... by aussie_a · · Score: 0

      Elon Musk wasn't even alive 120 years ago. I know it's fashionable to hate on Elon Musk but Tesla can't be blamed for everything.

    2. Re:First we have to repeal a law ... by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      You've confused "inefficient" with "impossible."

      Wireless charging at a distance can be done without violating any of the laws of physics. It just wastes a huge amount of energy.

  16. Thermodynamics says "that's stupid". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Inductive charging is around %75-80 efficient at best(real world is likely much lower). The phone your leaching off of is around %80 efficient at best. It will take from a charged battery and throw away a third of it to heat. At least we can all have dead batteries together. And more heat.

    1. Re:Thermodynamics says "that's stupid". by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Same people saying conserve energy are the ones wanting the most energy wasting products because they don't know how the stuff actually works and have no idea what efficiency means.

  17. And this will get a patent? by buss_error · · Score: 0

    Full disclosure - I absolutely loathe Sony and all their works. That is my personal opinion which others may or may not share according to their own experiences and thoughts. It is my personal wish that Sony would go bankrupt and their executives go unemployed.

    Ok, I did RTFA, and it says Sony applied for a patent, not that it was granted. That being said:

    1. We used to call this "getting a jump start" for our cars. No bigge here dude.
    2. We used to have electric tooth brushes that used uncoupled transformers to charge
    3. We used to have other tech that was charged using microwaves - either from a magnatrons arpature pointed at it, or toss it in a microwave oven. Only things I can think of there are under NDA but it was two decades ago and the literature is rife with proof of concept devices.

    I can't imagine this is ground breaking technology that deserves a government monopoly, but I'm sure the USPTO will issue it. But as far as I can understand, there's really no glorious technology here. Just a bucking power supply, regulator circuit, and a cord. I could likely whomp up one from parts sitting no less than 10 feet from me right now. (But then again, I've got a lot of parts others likely don't, unless they are used to making their own electronics.)

    --
    Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
    1. Re:And this will get a patent? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet the ~$2k to file and register a patent if accepted, especially with the new first to file makes it super cheap and easy to nuclearize a big corporate patent arsenal while also keeping the poor, pensioned, underemployed, or disabled tinkerer on the edge of a sustenance budget from being able to enjoy an American dream bootstrapping payoff for groundbreaking DIY development and research work.
      Patents and patent law is corporate friendly and American dream individual and small business hostile. In fact the constitutional intent was for the small business and individual to be protected from large businesses with a state issued limited monopoly to give them enough time to start a business with the invention.

  18. The patent would ALLOW me to wirelessly charge? by piojo · · Score: 2

    More like PREVENT. There are patents that push the state of the art forward, saving readers thousands of hours of R&D. I doubt this is one of them. The only result will be to dissuade manufacturers from pursuing this type of wireless charging.

    --
    A cat can't teach a dog to bark.
  19. I know what it will happen.... by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 2

    User1: Hi, my phone is low on battery, can I charge it from your ?

    User2: Sure, you are welcome!

    User1: Thanks, it is full charged now.

    User2: Uhm, now my phone is low on charge. Can I charge it from yours ?

    User1: Sure, you are welcome!
    ......

    User1: Uhm, now my phone is dead low on battery. Can I charge it from yours ?

    User2: Nope, also mine is dead.

    1. Re:I know what it will happen.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Socialism in a nutshell.

  20. Effective induction range by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is ridiculously short. Practically, you need to be touching the device.
    For reference see distances on induction stoves.

  21. "Patent Could Let"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suppose that was the original reason given for the patent system, but I think we can all just admit that it's a worthless pile of garbage.

    Today patents are vague descriptions of a process without any useful details on how to get it done. Worse, they are filed by companies that are just following procedures that everyone else already has, and are just trying to disallow all the other companies from having basic capabilities.

    The patent system is a step backward for society, and if we could get completely rid of it and that joke of a court system in that small town in Texas, we'd all be much better off.

  22. Re:Such a waste (And Nobody Wants CANCER!!!) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All this wireless shit causes cancer.
    Blasted into your body all day every day by every cell tower, wifi, radio, tv and power line on the planet.
    Morons.