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Wireless Power

Entry 428, on 2006-11-17 at 13:51:49 (Rating 1, Computers)

The following discovery attracted my attention in the international news on the BBC web site today. I'm a heavy user of portable devices, and the idea that they could all be charged and supplied with power wirelessly and automatically was really intriguing.

Researchers in the US have discovered an efficient way to transmit power to small devices, such as cell phones, music players, and laptops. Battery power is an ongoing problem because even though battery technology is improving steadily there is also a much higher demand on them because of more powerful computers, brighter displays, new technologies, etc. So the overall battery life of many devices has stayed quite low in many cases. My laptop only manages 3 to 4 hours of normal use, for example.

The new technology uses tuned resonant aerials to transmit electromagnetic radiation at 6.4 MHz. Instead of wasting the energy by broadcasting it in all directions the new device creates a bridge between the source and device. When there is no device in range the power is recycled. It sounds like a brilliant technology. With wireless networking, bluetooth, and this we can finally have real portable computing.

Not mentioned in the article, but something which I thought might be practical is this: small devices could be made with no, or minimal, battery power because their power could come from a larger nearby device. For example wireless earphones, wireless mice, etc are always next to an MP3 player, laptop, etc, which could provide them with power this way. Currently I don't find wireless mice and earphones very practical, partly because they seem to need constant recharging.

Maybe devices could even share power. If my cell phone got low in power it could borrow it off my laptop. Or maybe we wouldn't have batteries in the devices themselves at all. Maybe we would have a separate power module in our laptop bag, backpack, pocket, etc, and all the devices would share it. Its a really interesting idea.

Just in case you were wondering: the technology is safe because only devices tuned to the right frequency are affected by it. There is no chance of damage to the health of people nearby, or interference with other electronic devices. I just can't wait until this technology is available!

Comment 1 (3303) by OJB on 2012-07-27 at 15:44:47:

It looks like this might be one of those technologies which is always "just around the corner". As I write this it is July 2012 and, as far as I know, there is still no wireless charging in a commercially available device. It probably won't be in the upcoming iPhone 5 but maybe in the iPhone 6, or 7, or...

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