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Wireless Power Recharging Nears Fruition 310

Posted by timothy from the lead-codpiece-is-all-that-prevents-it-now dept.
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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Wireless Power Recharging Nears Fruition More

Wireless Power Recharging Nears Fruition

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  • Big Deal (Score:5, Informative)

    by DaNasty ( 833075 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:28PM (#11448393) Homepage
    Bah, Tesla did it ages ago.

    • Re:Big Deal (Score:3, Informative)

      by Donny Smith ( 567043 )
      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.

      • this shit is scary

        Concur.

        Heinlein took a look [wegrokit.com] at this quite a while back, and while I'm quite sure he's got the details all wrong, the underlying concern remains quite valid.

    • 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

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

        by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @02:50PM (#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.

        • 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.

          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...

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

            by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @03:40PM (#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).

          • Re:Big Deal (Score:3, Interesting)

            by rich3rd ( 559032 )
            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
        • You have the order of Tesla's work backwards. He had the whole 3-phase AC system worked out before coming to the USA to work with Edison. He later developed the florescent light and wireless power distribution techniques.

          Do a search on 'Wardenclyffe Tower' to see that you are incorrect about how far he took the wireless power and communication concept. Far beyond un-inked drawings indeed. It was destroyed in 1917 [earlyradiohistory.us].

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

      by Soldrinero ( 789891 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @02:03PM (#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...

    • You just made like 30,000 Russians shiver.
    • ..this time its Patented!
      • ...this time its Patented!

        Well, not exactly...

        All these patents:

        645,576 , 649,621 , 613,809 , 685,955 , 685,953 , 985,954 , 787,412 , 723,188 , 725,605

        and most notably,

        1,119,732

        Are all Tesla's patents regarding such a feat.

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

    by yabos ( 719499 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:28PM (#11448394)
    Stuff like this was always on StarTrek and I thought, no way, but now, that's amazing.
    • Wow, yeah. Who would have thought that the average transformer, which uses essentially the same technology, would be on Star Trek?

      Who would have thought that a TV show from the 60s would be able to predict something that was invented around one hundred years before that? Talk about predicting what's coming. Next thing you know, they'll be using futuristic devices such as pulleys to lift heavy things, or possibly show the amazing futuristic possibilities of using wheels to make locomotion easier. Oh, I

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

    by richardoz ( 529837 ) * on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:28PM (#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 @01:54PM (#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.

      • BTW: I wasn't able to replace the battery without destroying the brush. Worthless.

        I wouldn't consider yourself worthless just because you couldn't do it. :)

        They generally make these things as cheap as possible, which usually means it's impossible to even get it open without damaging or destroying it. Besides, they'd rather you buy a new one than replace the old battery.

        BTW, the battery was probably destroyed by constant overcharging. With anything that has a NiCd or NiMH battery and doesn't ha

      • 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

    • My Braun toothbrush and Panasonic shaver both have such cradles as well. All inductuve, no metal contacts anywhere.
    • Yeah, I've got one of those, too -- a brilliant way to keep rechargable components safe in a moist bathroom environment.

      A friend of mine did a year abroad during college, and went to Japan. When he got back, he showed me the cell phone he had in Japan (didn't work with US systems, of course) and it was literally the size of my first two fingers. The phone was all one piece, with an internal unremovable battery. It had a specialized cradle (much like the sonicare cradle) and it recharged without contact
      1. 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!

      Braun does this too. I've had a cordless toothbrush with this for about 3 years. There s a way to recycle the battery (put handle in the charging stand and twist) though I don't know if there are replacement batteries. The only issue has nothing to do with

  • Nikola Tesla? (Score:2, Informative)

    by LanMan ( 16456 )
    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 @01:42PM (#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 @02:42PM (#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...
      • If you actually do the math to determine how much force on your DNA is provided by these ridiculously high EMF fields at a distance, you see that indeed the force is negligible. I'm talking orders of magnitude below that needed to overcome the phosphodiester bond strength. The notion that EMF from power stations, etc., causes cancer is both under debate and not commonly accepted in the science community.

        • If you actually do the math to determine how much force on your DNA is provided by these ridiculously high EMF fields at a distance

          It's a bit strange suggesting such an unlikely mechanism, when we have the simple and proven one of induction heating. Alternating electromagnetic feilds heat things up at a distance, including raising the core body temperature of people that are close enough to a strong enough alternating magnetic feild - for example pregnant women working on EMF plastic seam welders in the 19

      • Re:Nikola Tesla? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by photon317 ( 208409 )

        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
      • Transformers aren't just a matter of "lots of electricity running through a coil" - it is alternating current in a coil inducing alternating current in another properly positioned coil. It doesn't have to be "a lot" of electricity. As the magnetic field collapses it produces current, and the alternating current produces a continuing collapsing field.

        Transformers are very efficient at transferring power - your house is powered by a transformer taking power from the main line. What he's probably thinking
      • Nowadays, we also know that having that much EMI around constantly will give you cancer in short order. We do? So the people complaining about living under power lines do have a legitimate case?
  • 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) (at) (gmail.com)> on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:31PM (#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 @01:32PM (#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.
    • 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.

      No.. You won't be lugging it around. But you'll have one on your desk at work, another at home. The hotel you stay in will have one next to the phone.

      The idea is that all your devices will be charged by it. Throw your cell, music player, and Palm on the rubber matt, walk away. No plugging three dev
      • Because everyone won't have one. This is the real world; you're not going to get universal acceptance of this technology.

        And even if you could get one of these pads into every hotel, every workplace, every home, there may still be times when you need a charger. What if you're on the road? Will you need to lug around one of these large pads with a car adapter attachment?

        It just seems a bit ridiculous to expect "everyone" to have one of these pads.
    • From my understanding, it's not the inductive charging that is so cool here (good, since that's been around for a while). It's the fact that they've reduced it to a thin, transparent film that can be applied to any surface, almost invisibly.

      Have a nice solid mahogany desk? Just slap this film on it and it's also a recharging station for any device, without looking any different. Do the same to the dash in your car. Or wherever.
    • "Wireless" is just a catchphrase. The real point is that it'd be pretty convenient not to have to plug/unplug all your little gizmos everywhere you go, just like it's convenient not to have to plug/unplug your Ethernet cable. Nothing revolutionary, but damn nice anyway.
    • The only place where I might just see it happening is in airports

      And Starbucks. And your desk at work. And...and...and...

      I don't see any airport opting to do away with their regular sockets and getting these plates instead.

      Why not have both? Build these things into the tabletops in a cafe, wired through the tableleg, as well as the existing wall sockets here and there. Charge an extra $0.25/hour on top of whatever connection fee to recharge your PDA/laptop/cellphone. Reduced liability, because customer

    • It's not really wireless charging. A more accurate name would be contact-less charging, as there are no electrical contacts required. (if only the average joe knew what inductance was...)

  • Efficiency? (Score:3, Informative)

    by e2ka ( 708498 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:33PM (#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 @01:48PM (#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.
    • From what I gather it's inductive coupling, the simple way of viewing this is to imagine cutting a transformer in two and wraping the two halfs in plastic, you put them together your electricity flows just like a normal transformer, though the gap created by the plasic might cause minimal losses in the transfered energy. All the other losses of the sysetem would add up to heat dissapation from the pad.. putting your bracelet down on it might also cause some heat to be radiated :)
    • I found this article you should read. It will clarify what it is they're really talking about.

      Enjoy! [mobileread.com]

  • 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 @01:36PM (#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.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Electric Toothbrushes (Score:3, Insightful)

    by n0dalus ( 807994 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:36PM (#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

  • Standards based? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by welshie ( 796807 )
    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 @01:46PM (#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 @01:51PM (#11448531)

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

  • I saw a splashpad charing a couple of mobile phone batteries and gadgets when they were at a recruitment fair in Cambridge last year.

    It's a very cool technology, impressively charging multiple devices on the pad at the same time. The product I observed seemed pretty advanced, I wonder what the holdup is in releasing it?

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

    by savuporo ( 658486 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:54PM (#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 ) <snoopdoug@geekaz ... minus physicist> on Sunday January 23, 2005 @01:58PM (#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!
  • Before you Slashdot poor Alexander's server into oblivion (which he funds himself, out of his own pocket), please consider using the Coralized version of the story [nyud.net] or the MirrorDot copy [mirrordot.org] first.

    This should be the default, not an afterthought!

  • Some farmer [physicsforums.com] did that decades ago.


  • http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arno ld pad.htm

    as you can see, you can already charge your wireless mouse in a wireless way

    they filled patents for that ! wow

  • The problem with inductive coupling is that it requires a fairly strong magnetic field to work well. And we all know what magnetic fields do to things like floppy disks and hard drives...

    Though I'm no physicist, it seems to me the magnetic flux required to get a usable inductive transfer would also be strong enough to erase data from a laptop hard drive or nearby floppy. Even if it doesn't erase data, the presence of a strong magnetic field could have a negative effect on the useful life of a hard dri

  • The trick is ... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you drive the primary coil with a very spiky signal, you get max. dv/dt. That means effectively that you don't need a core. You can couple a decent amount of power at a range of a half inch or so. Look at the charging circuit on your toothbrush. You will most likely find something like a 555 timer. (I had a couple of students implement this as part of a project about seven years ago.)

    Another example of such power transfer is rfid chips. In that case, the transfer takes place over a range of feet.

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

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @02:20PM (#11448693) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • It wasn't on your desk because the technology was far more difficult than expected. As I understand this is basically the same thing Sonicare and other similar devices use to charge. While this makes it sounds like it would be easy, remember that those other devices require a specific orientation and only charge one device at a time. Charging numerous devices just tossed onto a pad is significantly more difficult and impressive.
  • If the portable electronics industry could agree on a standard low-voltage outlet, life would be simpler.

    We have two standards now, the big, dumb 12V cigarette lighter outlet, and the ARINC 628 connector found at aircraft seats. The latter has more of a future.

    More ground-based stuff for ARINC 628 would be useful. Many laptops will already recharge from it. It is intended for consumer environments, protected against overload, and has a rugged connector. There are even pins for a data connection. But

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

    by TheGuano ( 851573 ) on Sunday January 23, 2005 @02:51PM (#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!
  • I want one of their charging platters in my car's glove compartment, and another in my backpack. It's like a battery toaster!
  • I know not to complain, but I can't resist. I know /. is not aup-to-date news (I mean it is, sometimes), but this thing was promissed by the same company, during the CeBIT back in March 2003. Perhaps candidate to the Wired Vaporware list next year?
  • What's the next new technology in computers? That's right; it's MRAM (Magnetic RAM). How will MRAM function in the presence of these strong alternating magnetic fields? Answer: Not very well.

    You could probably charge a laptop more effectively with light if its case were fabricated with quad junction GaAs cells (under clear plastic). Then there would be no need for any radiation sources other than ambient light.

    --
    sigs are a waste of space

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