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Wireless Power Recharging Nears Fruition

Posted by timothy on Sun Jan 23, 2005 12:26 PM
from the lead-codpiece-is-all-that-prevents-it-now dept.
Technology Science
AlexanderT writes "Mobileread.com is reporting that wireless power recharging of mobile devices may become commercially available by the end of this year. Various recently filed patents by Cambridge UK-based Splashpower Ltd. indicate how close the company is in realizing this technology."
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  • Big Deal (Score:5, Informative)

    by DaNasty (833075) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:28PM (#11448393) Homepage
    Bah, Tesla did it ages ago.
    • Interesting stuff can be found on networks - usually HAARP and Tesla, these two words, produce good results.

      If cell phones are dubious, this shit is scary - it must be impossible to keep out of electromagnetic radiation's reach.

    • I've been meaning to read up on Tesla, I've read some, but nothing major.
      Forgive me for the newb question, but are there things that he did or use that we to this day still cannot replicate and/or explain? I've seen mentions of this, but nothing specific.

      • Re:Big Deal (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        One of tesla's famous experiments was powering an electric motor over a distance of several miles, to a farmhouse nearby his laboratory. The farm had no power generation of any kind (as most other places didn't at the time). Tesla was able to beam power to a receiver, and run the motor to do real work for several hours.

        His notes on this, alas, have been lost.
        • One of tesla's famous experiments was powering an electric motor over a distance of several miles, to a farmhouse nearby his laboratory.

          WHere's the proof to this claim?

          Any pictures, film, 3rd party verifiable observations, etc?

          We've all seen wireless power transmission over a few feet, which is cool but it couldn't transmit power a few miles unless the machine was huge, and it would probably be hazardous to your health (See the video in one of the other threads here), and we've seen Tesla coils. But whe
            • A lot of information about Tesla's accomplishments is apocryphal. That's not to belittle Tesla himself: some of the things he did were astounding, particularly given the times in which he lived. Truly, he was a genius at applied physics, and far more scientific in his approach than many of his contemporaries (Edison, for example, who was an empiricist to the core.) Tesla, however, has achieved a sort of cult status today, and many mysterious, unexplainable inventions have been attributed to him. One "eyewit
              • Of course, the fact that we would have to toss the laws of thermodynamics out the window escapes them.
                Don't you get it? Those laws are part of the conspiracy!

      • Re:Big Deal (Score:4, Informative)

        by dbIII (701233) on Sunday January 23 2005, @01:50PM (#11448886)
        Forgive me for the newb question, but are there things that he did or use that we to this day still cannot replicate and/or explain?
        No - ever wondered why those concept drawings he did of broadcast powered vehicles stayed as pencil sketches and didn't even get inked in? He moved on to AC transmission via wires. Broadcast power made more sense as a concept back then - power transmission lines didn't exist and everyone knew it would take a vast amount of copper to get electricity to cities which so some inefficiency was acceptable. In the end experiments showed that you had to have a very strong signal to be able to do much at a distance, but someone had to try it out first. A side effect of broadcast power was radio, and Tesla was eventually granted the US patent for that.

        Back then what we take as basic electronmagnetic physics was all weird stuff, the earth return experiments paticularly freaked people out (sticking a light bulb in the dirt and watch it light up), but it didn't take long before we had Telslas three phase alternating current with earth return.

        Edison pushed DC very hard, and played the man instead of the ball by attacking Tesla and not AC and succeeded in discrediting Tesla in the USA - so he's become the subject of mystic crystal crap fake TV documentaries. In the rest of the world he's just the guy who came up with the best system that did a lot of experimentation to find out what would work.

          • Re:Big Deal (Score:5, Insightful)

            by dbIII (701233) on Sunday January 23 2005, @02:40PM (#11449197)
            I'm trying to figure out which person you're referring to, the documentary bit seems to point at tesla, but the other part points at edison...
            The sort of fake documentary I mean is the ones that talk about the boat ramps on Easter Island as proof that they are roads leading to a sunken continent. There's been stuff like that done about Tesla, using him as an excuse to push their warped ideas.

            Edison was a very capable and not entirely scrupulous businessman, and he wasn't going to let the fact he had a system that was far less safe or efficient than Teslas - so he called Telsla a crank and a dreamer that was promising the impossible. Some of the mud stuck, since Edison was more or less a national hero, and Telsa was from some bit of Eastern Europe full of untrustworthy Jews and Slavs (nineteenth century USA attidudes folks), and since no-one would go against Edison initially Telsa would tell anyone that would listen that there was a conspiricy against him - which was effectively true, but made him look more like a crank.

            In the end it was Edisons system that we use at low voltages (transmitting DC is impractical), and Teslas system to move the current long distances and run motors of any decent size. There's nothing weird or mystical about AC current or even broadcast power (which is just high intensity radio waves).

          • Tesla had the unfortunate distinction of being latched onto by a lot of wackos who believed he was some kind of Venutian sent to Earth to save us from our ignorance. This biography [amazon.com] illuminates his problems with Edison, who only hated AC because he didn't think of it first. Since the book was written in 1981, the author would not have known about Asperger's Syndrome, but from the accounts of all his quirks, it seems pretty obvious that he was a poster child for the condition. He was also very loyal, almos

    • Re:Big Deal (Score:5, Informative)

      by Soldrinero (789891) on Sunday January 23 2005, @01:03PM (#11448608)
      Here's a video of a Tesla-style wireless power transmitter in action: wireless power! [tcbouk.org.uk]

      I hope they start using this widely. It will make life a lot more intersting...

      • Re:Big Deal (Score:5, Informative)

        by johnrpenner (40054) on Sunday January 23 2005, @04:50PM (#11450109) Homepage

        Tesla did Wireless Power, 'with no diminuation with distance'.

        Tesla's wireless power was technically demonstrated to be feasable.
        But socially unfeasable. Because our Social Structures do not yet permit
        a system where you can afford to give away your power for free.

        The reason nobody wants to use it, is because with Tesla's system,
        you can't METER it - you have to give it away. If you have a Hydro station,
        and use Tesla's 'Magnifying Transmitter' (as he called it), then you would be
        simply GIVING your power away, because you couldn't control who uses it.
        Therefore, all the electric companies used a more limited version of his AC system,
        using wires so that you could put a Power-Meter Barnacle on every site that
        was using the AC power you supplied.

        best regards,
        j

  • Again StarTrek way ahead of it's time (Score:3, Insightful)

    by yabos (719499) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:28PM (#11448394)
    Stuff like this was always on StarTrek and I thought, no way, but now, that's amazing.

  • Wireless - really Inductive Coupling (Score:5, Informative)

    by richardoz (529837) * on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:28PM (#11448400) Homepage
    When I saw the title about wireless charging, RF (Radio Frequency) came to mind.
    Then I RTFA (Articles / Advertisements) and realized that they are in fact talking about inductive coupling.
    Inductive charging cradles have been used by Sonicare® for several years to charge their cordless toothbrushes.
    It pretty cool anyway!

    • Re:Wireless - really Inductive Coupling (Score:4, Interesting)

      by freeze128 (544774) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:54PM (#11448550)
      Yeah, I had one of those brushes... It lasted about 1 year. After that, the battery wouldn't hold a charge anymore. In an effort to see if I could replace the battery (like I have on my rechargeable razors), I broke it open. It's just a coil of wire on the bottom of the brush. There wasn't even a LOT of wire, so it probably didn't provide too much current.

      BTW: I wasn't able to replace the battery without destroying the brush. Worthless.
      • Mine has been working fine for years. Not only do I use it, but my wife and two of our three kids use it. My third child is only 1-1/2 YO so he's still getting the hang of the non-electric version, but that Braun will work just fine for him. Our original brush cost US$50, and I've seen them in the store for US$20 that now have a two-minute timer. You probably throw away $20 on a weekly basis, so what is $20 annually even if you were to somehow mess up the new one in a year's time?
      • There wasn't even a LOT of wire, so it probably didn't provide too much current.

        Actually, you've got it backwards. Coils with fewer turns can supply more current than coils with more turns, but at a lower voltage. More turns == more voltage, less current. Fewer turns == lower voltage, higher current.

        For the purpose of charging a battery, the only concern is voltage. You have to have at least battery voltage in order to get current to flow into the battery. So ideally, you want to use as few turns as n

  • Didn't Nikola Tesla work on remote power transmission way back when? I thought I remembered seeing info about this in the back of old Popular Science magazines when I was a kid.

    • Re:Nikola Tesla? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Jozer99 (693146) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:42PM (#11448484)
      Yes, but the problem was that if you got close enough to the changing station, it would charge you, in the form of 40000000 kajillion volts. They were also monsterously ineffecient, his test models that could power an acre with usable amerage were the size of light houses. Nowadays, we also know that having that much EMI around constantly will give you cancer in short order. What this company is probably doing is called inductive coupling. This is a relatively simple phenomina. When you have lots of electrity running through a coil, then you place some more wire inside the coil, current is generated in the second coil. This is not a long range effect, so don't think that when you walk in your front door your cell phone and laptop will start charging. It would be more of a "place the device on the special box, no plugging it in" kind of thing. My question is how much power it uses. Induction is much weaker than conduction, so it seems like a laptop that requires 30W of power to recharge would need 1000W to run through the charging mat. I wonder how much more people are willing to pay on their electric bills so they don't have to plug their laptops into the power adapter every day.

      • Re:Nikola Tesla? (Score:5, Informative)

        by rco3 (198978) on Sunday January 23 2005, @01:42PM (#11448827) Homepage
        Inductive charging systems are considerably more than 3% efficient. It's nothing but a transformer with no magnetic core and somewhat less coupling than usual. Depending on the physical layout of the charging and receiving coils, energy transfer efficiency can easily be greater than 90%, and the least little tiny bit of intelligence on the part of the charger will have it shut down the charging coil when not needed...

        If systems that used magnetic induction between two coils for energy transfer were so inefficient, we wouldn't use these things called transformers EVERYWHERE. In fact, that was the whole point of Tesla's preference for AC power...

      • Just to drive home how silly this company is, realize that not only is their "Wireless Charging" really just inductive coupling, but that inductive coupling is basically what a Transformer does. You know Transformers, which have been ubiquitous since electricity came into widespread use. They're in every freaking wall dongle and virtually every electronic device's power supply. The difference between "Inductive Coupling Chargers" and transformers is that a transformer is housed in a single case, whereas

        • Nowadays, we also know that having that much EMI around constantly will give you cancer in short order...

          Riight. And John Kerry is our rightful President.

          To expand on that, we know no such thing. Ionizing radiation (X-rays, gamma rays, etc.) certainly does, but radio and microwaves operate at much lower frequencies and do not cause ionization.

          What the effects of non-ionizing RF raditation on meat (i.e. people) are, beyond heating it up, are not really well known yet. Perhaps it does cause cancer

  • Cool candle-shaped lights. They recharge when they sit on their base station but it's not a direct electrical contact.

    http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5cf5/

  • Oh ok....not so impressive (Score:5, Informative)

    by mcknation (217793) * <nocarrier@gmail. c o m> on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:31PM (#11448414) Homepage


    At first I read the summary and freaked.
    Wireless Power!
    My mind raced witht the possible applications...this lasted 1/2 of a second. Then I stopped writing new sci-fi reality in my mind, read the company's website. It's really cool but has no where near the applications of TRUE wireless power.

    /-McK

  • How is this wireless charging ? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Animaether (411575) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:32PM (#11448422) Journal
    How is this wireless charging, if you need to place the object on a specific pad ?

    Sure, there's no actual wire connection to your phone - but it's not like you can just walk around within N feet of some 'emitter' and the phone will charge.
    That specific pad still has to plug in somewhere.
    And that pad is larger than any travel adapter for a mobile phone - so you won't be taking one with you anytime, which means you'd have to rely on one being present wherever you decide to go ? I don't think so.

    And these plates have been around for years. It's called induction charging.

    The only place where I might just see it happening is in airports - but given that most devices will not work with this pad, but will still work with a regular charger, I don't see any airport opting to do away with their regular sockets and getting these plates instead.
    • Induction charging is not new, and it's no panacea.

      It would however be very useful for watertight cellphones, in much the same way as it's used with cordless rechargeable tootbrushes.

      Not that there are many ruggedized/waterproof cellphone models available. Kind of spoils the replacement market.

  • Efficiency? (Score:3, Informative)

    by e2ka (708498) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:33PM (#11448429) Homepage
    Isn't this going to be a horribly innefficient use of power? Instead of directing current directly to the place it needs to be you are blasting unused energy into space.

    If this gets popular, say every cell phone uses one of these, what is the total wasted energy? I bet it's huge.

    • Re:Efficiency? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:48PM (#11448513)
      Actually, it won't be as high as you think. As it is an inductively coupled system, it relies on magnetic coupling between the charger and the PDA, etc. It is essentially a power transformer where the secondary winding can be removed. If only the primary remains (i.e. there is no device on the charger) the only energy lost will be the magnetizing current of the primary. Granted, this will be a high-frequency power source, so there will be additional losses in the primary side semiconductors, etc., but it's not like this device is powering the whole room.

      • RTFA.
        Or, barring that, at least read the first few comments.

        No energy is "blasted" anywhere. It's a pad with a zillion tiny connectors that you set your phone on. Pretty stupid, really.

        Actually, there are no connectors - it uses magnetic induction. Bascially, you run current through a coil generating a magnetic field. The device to be charged contains a similar coil and when this is placed next to the first, the magnetic field generates a charge in the device.

        The GP poster you are replying to is
  • In other news, cancer rates in the greater Cambridge area have jumped to epidemic proportions....
  • has been /.'ed. Its funny, laugh.

  • Seeing is believing. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Shoten (260439) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:36PM (#11448443)
    I've seen this company make this announcement before. And before that, there was the statement that major cellular manufacturers including Nokia and Motorola were interested in the technology. Yeah, no duh, they'd be interested, but the company played it up as though they'd signed contracts to have the tech included in their products, which was definitely not the case. And the graphic images that are being shown haven't changed in about 18 months, at the very least. Show us a working prototype at some conference and I'll kiss whoever built it, but for now I don't believe this company will ever produce a product. They have a great idea, but I don't believe they know how to make it a reality.

  • The Quiet Earth [imdb.com]. That whole mess started with a large scale wireless power initiative.

    On the bright side, anyone who dies at the exact moment this stuff is deployed can look forward to an existance happily unmarred by traffic jams, cell phones in theatres, and income taxes.

    Cheers
    -b

  • Electric Toothbrushes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by n0dalus (807994) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:36PM (#11448447) Journal
    I've had my electric toothbrush that charges without contact for years. It's not very special. It's just a magnetic field that works like the two parts of a transformer.
  • Mobileread.com is reporting that wireless power recharging of mobile devices may become commercially available by the end of this year.

    You mean like my 10 year old shaver and 15 year old electric tooth brush?

    Gee whiz, replacing a wall-wart with something ten times larger and more obnoxious to try and pack. Oh boy!

    I suspect their grand plan is to make these places omnipresent- hotels, airplane lunch trays/armwrests etc....but it's a classic chicken/egg problem. What manufacturer will bother licensing

  • I have countless wall-warts trying to provide various flavours of low voltage stuff to charge / power my electronic gear. I have things that have identical connectors that provide dangerously different voltages. So, having a wireless charging mat you could just drop your mobile phone on is great; it would be far greater if the technology is sensibly licenced, for instance, the charging equipment could be patented, with royalty fees payable to the inventor (what is this? someone on Slashdot extolling the v
  • Magnetic induction charging has been around for a while, as one of the commenters on the article mentions. My SoniCare electric toothbrush recharges that way, although it does have to sit in its charging stand to do it. The SplashPower product seems like a better package, especially the ability to charge multiple devices. The article is short on technical details. I wonder if the obstacle to charging cellphones and other data-carrying devices has been protecting the memory from the magnetic field?

  • Sleep Induction (Score:5, Funny)

    by malia8888 (646496) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:46PM (#11448506)
    The company should market these to people with sleep problems. They could make mattress-sized pads and charge maybe $3,000.00 U.S. for them.

    Their ad campaign could claim "Wake up in the morning feeling really recharged!!" :P

  • There are already several products on the market that utilize inductive charging. For example, electric toothbrushes have used inductive charging for years.

    The charging pad acts like the primary winding of a transformer. The power receiver serves as the secondary, along with the necessary rectifier, filter, voltage regulator, etc. You're still constrained to keeping your phone in one place during charging - you just don't have to physically plug it in.

    The biggest drawback would be the size / weight pen

  • God Help Us (Score:3, Interesting)

    by argoff (142580) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:51PM (#11448531)

    That is, for those of us who still have magnetic media arround like tapes and floppys (renember those)

  • how about microwave tranmission ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by savuporo (658486) on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:54PM (#11448548)
    From what i gather, this is inductive power transmission and limited by distance.
    Well, theres another kind: microwave transmission, which is also a demonstrated technology. Theorethically, we could beam power to any distance with it
    At one point, Mitshubishi was planning on deployment of sattellite system that would have beamed microwave power to portable devices. SolarBird [mitsubishielectric.com]. They still list a launch date of 2005 but ...
    Heres a Space Solar Power Monitor [wronkiewicz.net], a site that keeps tabs on whats happening on WPT front.
    Btw, here's a Wikipedia page on microwave tranmission [wikipedia.org]

  • A couple nitpicks (Score:3, Funny)

    by serutan (259622) <doug@NOSPaM.geekazon.com> on Sunday January 23 2005, @12:58PM (#11448568) Homepage
    First, the article makes it sound like these charging pads are going to be lying around everywhere (airports, coffee shops...). There have already been articles about businesses viewing "power leeching" as a problem. What's going to change these people's minds?

    Second, this gave me a chuckle:
    A series of recently filed patents may indicate that Slashpower technology is finally ready to march.

    Apparently the author lives someplace where filing patents means something tangible!

  • Vaporware of 2001. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Speare (84249) on Sunday January 23 2005, @01:20PM (#11448693) Homepage
    They were talking big about this thing in 2001/2002. It's been vaporware for years, because they haven't found anyone to actually fund and manufacture the things. A couple of prototypes is nice, and a few c|net and CNN mentions is nice, but it's not on my desk right now, three years later.

  • Already in use for mobile devices (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TheGuano (851573) on Sunday January 23 2005, @01:51PM (#11448894)
    People have already pointed out the sonicare toothbrush, but this is also used for the Abiocor artificial heart. Especially in the case of something embedded in your body, it's much better to have a system that does not require electrodes sticking out of your skin! And while a toothbrush may fit in your pocket, I'd wager a replacement heart qualifies more as a true mobile device!

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