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Handhelds Hardware

Wireless Charging your Handhelds? 236

Posted by CmdrTaco from the now-thats-just-crazy dept.
Flibble writes "The BBC has a story about a uk startup offering a mat for charging all your portable devices via magnetic inductive power transfer. Is this the answer to cutting the mountain of chargers I have to carry all the time?" God wouldn't that be a dream come true?
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Wireless Charging your Handhelds? More

Wireless Charging your Handhelds?

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  • cool (Score:4, Funny)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:29AM (#5564448) Homepage Journal
    This is definitly better then their first idea, which of course was the 'Jump-to-Conclusions' mat.

  • Sounds like a great idea.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Randolpho ( 628485 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:29AM (#5564451) Homepage Journal
    ... until everyone's head explodes from all the radiation. ;)
  • THIS is the sort of thing that is worthy of a patent.

    Not Bezos and his f****** 10 lines of HTML.
    • Argh, if i could only go back in time a few years back and patent the idea when i had it... Damn it cool though :)

    • Re:Are you watching USPTO? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kenthorvath ( 225950 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:00AM (#5564682)
      Excuse me, but I think there is definately a PRIOR art on induction. Or believe me - there definately would be patents and a lot of other hoopla. On a side note, my electric toothbrush has been charging wirelessly for about two years now. This is news?
      • Excuse me, but I think there is definately a PRIOR art on induction. Or believe me - there definately would be patents and a lot of other hoopla. On a side note, my electric toothbrush has been charging wirelessly for about two years now. This is news?

        Excuse me, but this patent is NOT on inductive charging. It USES inductive charging, but so what?

        Lots of patents get granted for battery-operated things. Following your logic, those patents shouldn't be granted because there's lots of things that use batter

    • Similar stuff like this has been done before and is already in the market place. For instance the key fob on new BMW never needs the battery changing as it is recharged by induction when it is in the ignition. I don't know if this would affect a patent on this device though

    • Well, I would argue that it either already is patented or it's too late to patent. I have a Panasonic shaver that uses inductive charging. There's no receptacle on my shaver it just sits in a device and charges without wires. This mat is only an expansion of this concept.
    • THIS is the sort of thing that is worthy of a patent.

      Yes, I can see it now... "method and device for transmitting power by means of inductive coupling".

      Here's a clue: the transformer been around for about as long as we've known about electricity.

      ALso, the idea of using a transformer as the coupling for a charger base has been around for as long as I can remember. As a kid I had an electric toothbrush that did this. It's a great idea for something like a toothbrush, because it's harder to waterproof an e
    • The only way to solve the patent problem is to remove the patent office's requirement to be self-funding. That way, there's no incentive for them to accept bad patents just because it pays.

      Nothing else in patent reform matters before that is resolved.
    • "The technology developed by SplashPower is based on the principle of magnetic inductive power transfer.

      Inductive charging systems are already used in products like rechargeable electric toothbrushes."

      They based it on a principle they did not discover. The technology already exists and all they did was make a slight improvement. So they deserve to own the rights to the technology all of a sudden?

      Personally I'm against all patents (Based on many many many many hours of reading about the subject). Yet,

  • Sounds Great (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Martok7 ( 634005 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:31AM (#5564461) Homepage
    Sounds great, but I wonder how slow the charge time is and how compatible it is.
    • The article says that devices will have to install a module (less than a millimeter thick, and costing about $0.25) in order to make use of the pad. And as long as I get a day of use out of my device, I don't care if it takes all night to charge.

      This is an awesome innovation and just the excuse I've been looking for to upgrade my cellphone :)

    • Re:Sounds Great (Score:5, Insightful)

      by plover ( 150551 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:32AM (#5564946) Homepage Journal
      Actually, I'm wondering if retrofit kits will be available for existing equipment, such as a stickyback pad with a couple of solderable wires or some such. Those of us with old cell phones that are already out of warranty, or are not afraid to void our warranties, would love to use this.

      Hey, another patentable feature: put the receiver in a Bluetooth mouse and use the charging pad as a mouse pad. Never EVER needs ANYTHING.

      The cool thing is that "compatible" should be a non-issue. Each receiver will probably be fitted with an appropriately valued voltage regulator. The field produced by the mat won't have a "voltage" per se, but rather a "field strength." The receiver side will convert that to a voltage which will then be regulated as needed.

      Hmm. I wonder if it'll even make a difference if the pad gets 120 or 220 volts?

  • Dumb Question (Score:5, Interesting)

    by boatboy ( 549643 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:31AM (#5564462) Homepage
    OK, Dumb Question: Why doesn't it short out easily?

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Duh! There are no exposed wires TO short out! The mat sets up an alternating magnetic field and the device being recharged converts that magnetic field back into whatever voltage it needs for its batteries. It's an over-glorified transformer without an iron core!

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:2, Informative)

      by 0x4B ( 214493 )
      maybe I'm missing your point, but placing objects on the mat doesn't complete a circuit. the mat produces a magnetic field, objects in the field are irradiated and recieve energy.
    • It merely radiates energy, probably through a sealed casing.

      The same thing is used in some cell phones and the occasional electric toothbrush. I also read a while back (no link, sorry) about using a similar system to power heart regulators without placing a "jack" in someone's skin.

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:5, Informative)

      by cdrudge ( 68377 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:43AM (#5564542) Homepage
      Um...not quite sure what you are asking. There is nothing to short out...well, actually there is internally, but you just lay your device on it and it charges it inductively assuming that you have the SplashModule "receiver" inside your device to "receive wireless power".

      Are you confusing conductive with inductive? Inductive is using EMF to transfer the power. I'm starting to see more and more things use inductive recharging systems. I've had a razor that used it as well as many electric cars use it I believe.

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:4, Funny)

      by Glen Ponda ( 599385 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:45AM (#5564565)
      OK, Dumb Question: Why doesn't it short out easily?

      Uh, it like, uses technology, or something.

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AlecC ( 512609 ) <aleccawley@gmail.com> on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:52AM (#5564614)
      There is no electrical contact *to* short out. It is using magnetism, not electicity. Pad generates alternating magnetic field above its surface. Put coil tuned to same frequency in field. Conductor in changing magnetic field generates current, so AC generated. Add rectifier, DC generated. I can see that the add-on to the mobile device will be cheap - a coil and 4 diodes. This could work.

      One non-green point: How much power is dissipated with no devices on it, or with fully charged devices? But then, how much power is dissipated by plugged in "wall warts".

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Smallpond ( 221300 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:10AM (#5564738) Homepage Journal

      Not a dumb question. Magnetic circuits can be shorted just like electrical circuits. In fact, proximity sensors work because any metallic object absorbs enough energy to be detectable by its electronics. In this case, I assume they have done their homework and made the energy field low enough not to fry your hand if you are wearing a wedding ring, say.

    • Re:Dumb Question (Score:3, Informative)

      by brakk ( 93385 )
      The principal is the same thing that makes the current charger for your phone or power supply for your laptop work. They all have a transformer inside to step down the voltage coming from the wall. 110VAC goes through one coil in the transformer which is held close to another coil that is wrapped different so you get a lower AC voltage out the other side. There is no electrical connection, but since it's AC power, it creates a magnetic field that is picked up by the second coil. Then, it's just run through

  • Please please please (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 91degrees ( 207121 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:32AM (#5564471) Journal
    Make these things standard! I an really annoyed by the dozen different types of connectors, 5 different voltage levels, and 2 possible polarities. I want one PSU that can recharge everything.

  • Works for my toothbrush, why not? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Enry ( 630 ) <enry@@@wayga...net> on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:32AM (#5564472) Journal
    Sonicare toothbrushes (teethbrushes?) can already do this, and there are a few other bathroom-type things (elec. razors) that have this capability. This allows the items themselves to be sealed, so you can drop it in the sink, etc. without destroying it.

  • damage (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Could the elctro magnetic field not cause damage to sensitive electronics, especially things like flash memory?

  • I don't know (Score:3, Funny)

    by 2names ( 531755 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:34AM (#5564486)
    If it is strong enough to charge power sources through the case, wouldn't the plate in my head cause me to be stuck to the thing?

  • Cool (Score:3, Interesting)

    by codeonezero ( 540302 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:35AM (#5564489)
    I've been waiting for something like this since I was in my Physics lab class playing with magnets flux and copper coil.

    If true this could be awesome :)

    Wouldnt there be a problem with devices with magnetic drives though? I'm guessing either those devices have to be shielded, or they have to be devices not using magnetic drives (say compactflash cards, or optical drives...) ?

  • Finally, the future is here (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Harald Paulsen ( 621759 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:36AM (#5564495) Homepage
    One step closer to eliminating all those wires clogging up my desk. A laptop-PSU, a cell-charger, a charger for my Jornada 720, a charger for my wireless mouse. All could be replaced by a mat.

    I imagine this would be useful in a car as well.

    • Dream on. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by twitter ( 104583 )
      Do you think the makers of those devices are going to use this? They could be using standard battery sizes if they wanted to eliminate all those wires. It's a backward concept anyway. Devices should not be good devices not battery chargers. I've tried very hard to avoid silly devices that use non-standard batteries but I now own four and feel like I'm going backward in time.

  • Big Deal. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:39AM (#5564518) Homepage
    I've had one of these for a tablet PC for over 10 years now. Toshiba released one for doctors for their tablet PC's back in the mid 90's

    Got it with an auction I won that had 20 of those 486 tablet Pc's that used wacom tablets behind the screens for the pointer. Neat device.

    • I doubt it. There have been power mats - basically just big LiPoly batteries - for ages, but not inductive power units. They're very different things.

  • not very efficient (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hottoh ( 540941 )
    Yeah it is a cool idea. Long ago I had a rechargeable electric toothbrush that had a induction field charger. So the concept is not 'new' to the marketplace.

    Lastly they technology is not very efficient. I recall that it is less than half as efficient as a transformer [aka, adapter].

  • Lights on ThinkGeek have this (Score:5, Informative)

    by Bander ( 2001 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:40AM (#5564527) Homepage
    Charging by magnetic induction. They say, "like magic or something"... Har har. Kinda cool:

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

    (I'm not trying to sell you these, I'm not affiliated with ThinkGeek, yadda yadda...)

    -- Bander

  • Along these lines... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xXunderdogXx ( 315464 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:40AM (#5564528) Homepage Journal
    One thing I always dreamed about when I was studying EM radiation in first year chemistry was how awesome it would be to somehow grab power out of directed EM radiation. Just imagine all the useful things that would come out of such a technology:
    • No more power lines
    • No more batteries
    • Completely wireless monitors (without recharging)
    On a side note, I've always wanted wireless headphones that could be used for a walkman. So you'd just have to put tiny earbuds in your ears and leave your mobile audio device in your pocket.. I always figured this isn't feasible because of the power requirements.
    • When I was a kid, I once made a radio that required no power supply. The signal was strong enough to drive a high impedance headphone. So it is definitely possible to extract some energy from radio waves. However, it would not be enough to power a led..

    • Re:Along these lines... (Score:4, Informative)

      by eXtro ( 258933 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:18AM (#5564817) Homepage
      Nikola Tesla [pitt.edu] proposed this [aw-verlag.ch] around 1890 or so.
    • I can imagine what this will really look like. A big pile of stuff piled up on a mat that's too small to hold them all. A hard to place 60 Hz BZZZZZZZ will be heard next to it.
    • You need the wires to pull it out of your ears!

      Imagine the number of people heading to their physicians to pull out the buds.

      And the lazy teens who NEVER pull em out. You could bug them with a linux-programmed PDA that emits shrill sounds.. great tool for examiners making sure students arent cheating.. just turn the PDA on and stare at the faces, see which one twitches first.

      Or more seriously have satellite power companies beaming power down to subscribers all the time.. hmm
      • No more power lines
      • No more batteries
      • Completely wireless monitors (without recharging)
      No more hard drives...
      No more oscillators with inductors as a component

  • Easier solution... (Score:3, Funny)

    by ryanvm ( 247662 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:41AM (#5564531)
    Just put your Palm Pilot in the microwave for 30 seconds. Works for me.

    Oh wait - I didn't say turn it on!

  • It Works for Great Toothbrushes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Schlemphfer ( 556732 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:42AM (#5564539) Homepage
    I bought an Interplak toothbrush about five years ago, [conair.com] that I think uses the same kind of technology seen here. It worked great, and I was able to use that toothbrush every day until I dropped it on the floor last week. This kind of charging solution is ideal for something like a toothbrush, which is likely to get wet and be a supreme electrocution hazard if plugged directly into a wall.

    Anyway, this technology worked so well that I'd think this is almost an obvious idea for recharging electronic items, especially if it's not going to screw up hard drives and electronic media. So the question is, why haven't other companies taken this technology beyond toothbrushes?

    Overall, I was disappointed by the BBC article. It would have been great if the author had sought out an EE authority, and had her/him mention the disadvantages of this charging approach. I have a feeling that this charging solution is likely incredibly wasteful of electricity. But maybe this waste doesn't matter much if you're talking about minor charging needs like cellphones. Anyway, surely there's somebody on here with a EE background who can speak to whatever shortcomings are inherent in this technology.

  • Integrate this with seat warmers (Score:5, Funny)

    by FuzzyDaddy ( 584528 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:44AM (#5564559) Journal
    Volvo's come with seat warmers. Add one of these, and charge your cell phone as you drive!

    Of course, as long as you don't mind putting your future progeny's genetic material on and induction coil...

    Hmm. Nevermind.

    • Of course, as long as you don't mind putting your future progeny's genetic material on and induction coil...

      Not a problem. Given the way I feel right now about my four "past progeny", there ain't gonna be no future progeny, no way, no how.

      Yes, the two year-old got into my books and CDs. Again. But now he knows how to open the shampoo bottle. And after the yesterday's incident with my wife's computer and the peanut butter...

  • Similar Product (Score:5, Informative)

    by johnkoer ( 163434 ) <<moc.oohay> <ta> <reoknhoj>> on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:45AM (#5564564) Homepage Journal
    MobileWise [mobilewise.com] has a similar product.

    I saw both of these reviewed on TechTV because they were at the CES show a couple of months back.

    They seem pretty cool but I really do not want to see the pricetag.
  • How big would the EMF field attached to such a charger be? What kind of risk are we talking about here?

    Note: Im not a tinfoil hat EMF weirdo, i understand my microwave gives off an emf field yadda yadda... but in order to induct a charge into a device, i must imagine the GOAL of such a device to be a LARGE and POWERFULL field. exactly why we dont want 20,000KV lines next to our houses.. while its not going to melt my skin off, i think were seeing its not a good idea to ASK for such a thing... any clarit

  • Why not just build this into the carpeting? (Score:3, Funny)

    by BreadMan ( 178060 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @10:48AM (#5564582)
    Then you could get conductive shoes, socks, pants and just charge the devices as you carry them around! You'd be sterile, but that's a _small_ price to pay for not having to cradle your phone.
  • If only I wasn't still using my Palm III, having to replace batteries every couple weeks anyway. Why didn't I wait for Li-ION???!? Sounds great for the cell phone though.
  • It's a pipedream, but I always thought it would be interesting to put together a cordless mouse that has a few small solar cells in it that you could aim a laser (or maybe a focussed, white LED) at from it's little USB receiver and charge the batteries wirelessly that way. Problem is, solar cells are so inefficient, it would probably take a week or two just to get one charge...
  • I think MobileWise [mobilewise.com] has a better solution.
  • That picture on their web site makes the mat soft and comfortable. Rather than charging boring mobile phones, why not use it as a pillow?

    There was once a movie 'Electric Dreams' which I've never seen but probably had nothing to do with this.
  • My solution to this has been simple. Carry less gadgets when you travel.

  • Use as mousepad (Score:4, Funny)

    by sjonke ( 457707 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:16AM (#5564803) Journal
    You can also use it as a kind of "holistic mousepad". Improves tracking and cures wrist pain at the same time.

  • Now wireless parks and cafes could offer tables on which you could put your laptop and use it PLUGGED. If airlines take the idea too, and car manufacturers, we wouldnt need batterly lives of over 4 hours.

    To make it worth it, cafes for instance could make their tables coin-op to start powering for say 30 minutes, while you place your laptop and coffe cup over it. I wonder what the effecs of electrolysis are on coffee.

    I'm too skeptical of the inductive effects on foodstuff and the human body though.
  • it may be a little different in the implementation...

    But his basic idea is there!

  • Tesla (Score:3, Informative)

    by luzrek ( 570886 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:31AM (#5564944) Journal
    This sounds quite a bit like Tesla's original idea for the distribution of electricity, but at a more practical level. Tesla's idea was that a huge tesla coil would sit in the middle of a town and all electronic devices would be powered off of the very high frequency EM pulses from it. The two major problems (ok, three if you count the tesla coil) were that there was no way to meter usage, and the 1 of distance squared fall off in intensity once you got a resonalbe distance from the coil. The charging pad solves these problems. However, I think it will waste a bit of electricity. It would be better to have a charging "box" so less energy gets wasted.

  • Great idea! (Score:3, Funny)

    by 42forty-two42 ( 532340 ) <bdonlan.gmail@com> on Friday March 21, 2003 @11:33AM (#5564960) Homepage Journal
    My ipod will be able to charge... oh.
  • Inductive charging has been done. It would be nice to have 1 charger for all my devices, but it's no great innovation. I want to see a wireless device powered by radio waves.

    -Alison
  • What's the efficiency of your run of the mill inductive transfer? I'd imagine that you lose a lot of power generating the field that isn't transferred to the target device.

    Kind of speaks against their "green" argument.
  • I have a hard time believing that this is safe for electronic devices that store memory in ram chips (like PDA's). Wouldnt this effect the entire circuit? How do they isolate it to the proper section of the device? ... how the hell do they know which is the proper section?
  • What about my poor hard drive? Or do I have to disconnect the battery and put it on the mat by itself?

  • Because of course it is physically possible to standardise a single wired power connector for all the devices in your life, and no-one has ever bothered to.

    I can see a market for it of course but I fear you might end up with one pad per device instead of one cable per device.
  • As it was mentioned in an earlier comment, [ MobileWise [mobilewise.com] also has an interesting product. "MobileWise has a clever solution: technology that lets a flat surface (like a desk pad, or maybe even a desk itself) transmit power to little conductive contacts on the bottom of a device (notebook computer, PDA, cell phone, etc.) when it's set down. The power flows right through an exposed grid of contacts via direct current, and yet the recharger never shorts out or presents a danger, because it doesn't turn on until
  • So why are they talking about building these receivers into the devices? Why not have replacable battery packs with these integrated? I don't know how large the effective charge field is, but since most electronic device shells are plastic, there should be no penetration issues. The only problem I could see is that it takes size from the battery, but how small can you get a coil and four diodes?
  • ...on additionnal chargers that I'm sure they don't want this type of solution.
    Or else, charger would have been compatible a long time ago.

  • The barrier isn't technological... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @12:28PM (#5565489) Homepage
    Is this the answer to cutting the mountain of chargers I have to carry all the time?" God wouldn't that be a dream come true?

    The reason there are so many different chargers is intentional incompatibility. Splash Charge themselves shows evidence of this, as they intend to charge "between 25 and 50 dollars" when this ships. How much does a replacement AC adapter cost you? About 10 - 20 dollars in a normal device. How much does it cost the company? Pennies.

    Besides voltage settings (12 volts would be pretty even), there is no reason why device manufacturers couldn't have standardized on an 4-mm sized center positive 1.0 Amp plug by now. The ability to charge multiple devices at once is interesting, though one has to wonder how strong such a device could be with a reasonably sized wall wart.

    The technology is very cool and I look forward to using it someday. But I expect once that day comes, it will be a propreitary charging pad, able to fit only a specific device thanks to some unnecessary plastic tabs.

  • The electric car manufacturers tried inductive charging for years and gave up [power.net], in particular because the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in June 2001 decided to standardize on conductive. Now, this may only indicate a problem with inductive charging in high-power applications, and maybe gadget power is fine, but it's worth pointing out.
  • A UPS converts mains to 12V battery and then converts the 12V back to the mains. Then the little power supply brick converts the mains down to a few volts again...stupid.

    Now look at those in-car chargers which are just a plug to the lighter socket with some simple voltage conversion.

    What I would like to see is simply a UPS with a suitably large battery and a set of those car sockets round the back, and neat little adaptors for gadgets that plug into those sockets. Maybe the sockets could even go on top and

  • This beats the hell out of my tesla coil solution
  • All right! RFC3251 [ietf.org] over 802.11b!
  • is a new place for my cat to sleep.

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