Bluetooth Keyboards With a 10-Year Charge Promised 270
angry tapir writes "Broadcom is working on a Bluetooth chipset that will give wireless keyboards a battery life of up to 10 years. If they had a battery life of as long as 10 years, that Bluetooth-based accessories could potentially never need new batteries, the chip maker said. A set of two AA batteries would be enough to power a keyboard using the BCM20730 Bluetooth chip to connect with a computer for its entire lifetime, Broadcom said."
Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
Now tell me we're gonna have flying cars 'within the next 15-30 years'.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
We're gonna have flying cars 'within the next 15-30 years'
Re: (Score:3)
We're gonna have flying cars 'within the next 15-30 years'
Technically the batteries will last 10 years, it just has an aggressive sleep mode!
It goes to sleep after 0.5-0.75s of no activity and takes 2-3 seconds to wake up again :)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think current battery technology lasts that long, especially store bought AA's.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds good to me. (Score:5, Interesting)
I think I paid about $10.
Much to my amazement, its still running on a pair of "Everready lithium" batteries I put in when I first got it.
I put those batteries in everything that I have a tendency to ignore maintenance on, like remotes. I have never seen one of those lithium cells leak yet.
Its been one of those things with me that alkaline cells, regardless of who made them, leak. Even if they aren't dead yet.
I rarely use the keyboard, but when I do, it works. It only transmits ten feet or so, but its enough. It feeds an old P166 I have loaded with DOS and WIN95 to run my old DOS stuff.
What impressed me so was that the keyboard had no on-off switch. For ten years, the keyboard has been sitting there waiting for me to press a key.
My hat's off to the engineer who designed the thing.
I would not mind paying more for this keyboard's electronics in a sturdier mechanical design, but for ten bucks, I thought I got a really nice little gadget.
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:4, Insightful)
What impressed me so was that the keyboard had no on-off switch. For ten years, the keyboard has been sitting there waiting for me to press a key.
Maybe it acts like TV remotes, being on only when a key is pressed. That's still an amazing achievement, I agree.
Re:Sounds good to me. (Score:5, Funny)
Schrodingers Keyboard. If you don't press a key for 10 years the keyboard is both alive and dead.
Re: (Score:3)
Just out of interest, how much did you pay for the BATTERIES? :D
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
Couldn't the bluetooth chip be powered by utilizing the kinetic energy of a human pressing a button. Many people would actually prefer a bit of physical resistance in the buttons of a keyboard.
Re: (Score:3)
Check out EnOcean [enocean.com] sometime.
Wireless, kinetically powered switches, with up to 300 metres open-air range.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
Or generate tiny amount of electricity from the key press.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Informative)
You mean one day in the future we'll be able to have one of these [amazon.com]?
Boy, can't wait...
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Informative)
In actuality the signal strength is fine, better than my wireless mouse certainly, and not once when i've thought to check has it been below full charge despite being kept in our regular living room lighting conditions, which can be pretty dim at times. One of the coolest bonuses is a button you can press to launch a light meter app on your computer, which will tell you the lux [wikipedia.org] level the solar panels are currently being exposed to. It's been great fun to move the keyboard around and vary the lighting conditions to see how the value changes. It really brings home something everyone familiar with SF or photography is intellectually aware of, that the sun delivers a couple more magnitudes of light than we actually need to see comfortably with.
They keyboard is also incredibly light and thin. My only complaints relate solely to the the way some of the keys and their functions are placed/handled, but that's pretty obviously an issue with design choices and nothing to do with the basic hardware. And despite those quibbles it's still leaps and bounds above my previous Microsoft keyboard. (Silly me, when i bought it online as the only wireless keyboard option for my PC package i was putting together i figured "it's just a keyboard, how badly can Microsoft screw it up?")
Of course some people might not like the fact that it's not ergonomically shaped, but i prefer the old fashioned rectangular slabs
I wonder if they could make a solar powered mouse to match? You'd have to use curved solar panels that didn't feel too weird while you were actually using the mouse...
Re: (Score:2)
I would LOVE it if they made one with a built-in trackpoint or touchpad (to control the computer on my TV from the couch), and neither of those requires powering a light source for the optical mouse, which would seemingly be a significant power draw.
Although, the battery-powered wireless RF keyboard/touchpad I have now runs for months on 2 AAAs...
Re: (Score:2)
If you have enough light to see it, then you will have enough light to run it.
Ihmhi musn't light the bas- the PAINKEEP! The light, it BURNS us!
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Informative)
Literally if you have enough light to see the technology to harvest it and put it to good use for telemetry exists.... See Cymbet's paper on the design of an Intra Ocular Pressure Sensor here: http://www.cymbet.com/pdfs/eeweb-article.pdf [cymbet.com]. Something small enough to fit in your eye, report pressure wirelessly and last 10 years without a battery.
From the paper:
To extend lifetime, the IOPM harvests light energy
entering the eye with an integrated 0.07 square millimeter
solar cell that recharges the battery. Given the ultra-small
solar cell size, energy autonomy requires average power
consumption of less than 10nW. For the majority of its
lifetime, the IOPM is in a 3.65nW standby mode where
mixed-signal circuits are disabled, digital logic is powergated,
and 2.4fW/bitcell SRAM retains IOP instructions
and data. The average system power with pressure
measurements every 15 minutes and daily wireless
data transmissions is 5.3nW. When sunny, the solar cells
supply 80.6nW to the battery. The combination of energy
harvesting and low-power operation allows the IOPM
to achieve zero-net energy operation in low light. The
IOPM requires 10 hours of indoor lighting or 1.5 hours of
sunlight per day to achieve energy-autonomy
This would certainly be usable to keep something like a keyboard working forever with a solar cell that was barely noticeable.
Re: (Score:2)
Solar cells would be somewhat ugly, and dependent on light in the room. You'd prefer to use a coil in the desk, that would provide wireless power to the keyboard, the mouse, and the monitor (or monitors). If power consumption is low enough, efficiency is not an issue.
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Interesting)
Logitech has a solar keyboard right now. Will run partially off the glow from a couple of LCDs. Normal light in the room is more than enough to run the device and keep a full charge. I have seen it run off low light levels too, like a 40w table lamp.
Would rather have that than a magnetic field in my desk.
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep. I call shenanigans. I doubt there's a commercially available AA battery that'll reliably keep its charge for 10 years, much less power something.
Re:Ha! (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep. I call shenanigans. I doubt there's a commercially available AA battery that'll reliably keep its charge for 10 years, much less power something.
My alarm clock (seven-segment hh:mm:ss display, radio controlled) is running on one single
AA battery since at least late 2004, so it is going into its 8th+ year now. It is a completely standard
1.5V AA cell made by TDK (or at least sold under their name).
No, I haven't checked the battery for radiation yet. Yes, it is beginning to scare me a bit.
Re:Ha! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Timex makes several watches [amazon.com] with an advertized battery life of 10 years.
Besides, the battery doesn't particularly need to be in any standard form factor if it will never be replaced.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the lithium AAs are only about 1.75V at full charge. I put some in my Nikon F4s back in `1999 or 2000, and it still works fine on the same set.
solar panel? (Score:2)
If the current draw is that low then you could just use a solar panel to recharge from room lights. Just like the calculators do. problem solved.
It's a trap: Next step: Proprietary battery (Score:3)
...to increase battery life of course....and when they fail in 3 years instead of the promised 10, you get to go out and buy a whole new keyboard. (It lasts 10 years so why allow the user to change the battery).
We're seeing this with point and shoot cameras now. As recently as 2-3 years ago models that ran on AA batteries existed and some of them had decent battery life (a couple of hundred shots with flash). Now every new camera model is tied to a different proprietary lithium battery. This is for the good of the consumer of course, not so the camera manufacturer can gouge on batteries and make it more cost effective for the customer to replace the camera every 2-3 years. Makes me want to spit.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's a trap: Next step: Proprietary battery (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure what kind of camera you use, but the rechargeable, proprietary battery that came with my Canon DSLR has worked well for years and gone through hundreds of charge / discharge cycles without any noticeable reduction in battery life. While not as cheap as AA batteries, I just looked up replacement cost and found that I could get a new battery for about $30 -- not that I have any need to at this point.
And while the battery is proprietary to canon, it's used in a number of their DSLR cameras, so there's a good chance that if I replace my camera I'll be able to keep the old battery as a spare.
Try getting that proprietary battery in another 5-10 years. There are vintage cameras operating today that are many decades old. This will not be the case in future.
Also some manufacturers are worse than others and have a new camera per camera or set of similar cameras. Others re-use the same battery.
What is needed is a set of standard sized Lithium batteries...There's no reason for the current mess other than planned obsolence and price gouging. Heck Sony has even started chipping their cameras the way printer manufacturers chip their cartridges to prevent 3rd party batteries from eating into their overpriced originals.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is an important point.
I have three digital cameras, all less than 10 years old, sitting on a drawer for this very reason. Now I will not buy a camera that does not take AA batteries.
However, in the context of keyboards, I do not keep a keyboard more than 10 years. I think the longest I ever had one was 9 years and the keys eventually broke. Great keyboard ( PS2 original ) but they have their limits.
GrpA
Re: (Score:2)
You could buy an Apple keyboard instead.
Re: (Score:2)
Heck Sony has even started chipping their cameras the way printer manufacturers chip their cartridges to prevent 3rd party batteries from eating into their overpriced originals.
Yeah, but knock-off printer cartridges don't explode [engadget.com] because they were made without protective circuitry.
The problem with standards... (Score:2)
is that there are so many to choose from. When cameras were larger, you had more room for batteries, but as there's increasing pressure to make them smaller and more power-hungry, that fails.
If 2.4v is enough, you can use two AA batteries (most rechargeables only do 1.2v, but they hold a lot more power than 1.5v disposables), but it takes up a fair bit of space.
3.6v and 3.7v LiPo rechargeable technology is becoming a widely available standard, with a range of different sizes and capacities, but needs
Re:It's a trap: Next step: Proprietary battery (Score:4, Interesting)
Crack open that battery and what do you find? A couple of standard sized lithium batteries.
Re:It's a trap: Next step: Proprietary battery (Score:5, Informative)
We're seeing this with point and shoot cameras now. As recently as 2-3 years ago models that ran on AA batteries existed and some of them had decent battery life (a couple of hundred shots with flash). Now every new camera model is tied to a different proprietary lithium battery.
Yes, but the batteries are smaller, denser, and last longer. What is the problem, exactly?
LOTS of problems, actually (Score:5, Insightful)
We're seeing this with point and shoot cameras now. As recently as 2-3 years ago models that ran on AA batteries existed and some of them had decent battery life (a couple of hundred shots with flash). Now every new camera model is tied to a different proprietary lithium battery.
Yes, but the batteries are smaller, denser, and last longer. What is the problem, exactly?
Several problems:
- Forget to charge your battery? You're out of luck! You won't be able to get a standard replacement alkaline battery for a couple of bucks at the corner store
- Looked after your camera for many years and want to sell it or show your children a vintage camera? You're out of luck! Your battery is too old to hold charge and they don't make batteries for that model camera any more
- Have a lot of different cameras, and want to share a couple of sets of batteries between them? You're out of luck. Each camera you own uses a different battery. You need at least one per camera
- You're a camera enthusiast and want to buy spare battteries? You'll have to decide which camera you need a spare battery for. You can't afford $30 x number of spares x cameras
I've seen a lot of silly justifications ranging from the technology keeps improving so why would you want to use the old camera to who owns lots of cameras. But I promise you for me and many others these things matter. We talk about recycling and reuse, have shopping bags too flimsy to hold our goods that we are now charged for, conserve water, and use less than optimal lighting solutions to conserve energy, but the moment a company stands to make a profit by making something throw away or selling you a whole bunch of junk when one item would suffice, well the environment goes out the window. It's moronic to be this wasteful.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know... Having MULTIPLE $500 cameras... And hundreds more in accessories, and complaining that an extra $30 rechargable battery or two is kind of silly.
Of course that's why companies feel they can gouge:). I do think that when they get into chipping batteries there are issues with how you make the thing work in 10 years... I know plenty of people with 10 yr old SLRs that keep going...
Re: (Score:3)
No its not -- its bullshit greed, pure and simple. I'm and sick and tired of proprietary shit. It's inefficient, and wastes MY time trying to find the "proper" battery for device X.
Why do you think we have _standards_ such as AA, AAA, C, D batteries for? Or USB that allows devices to charge.
We need _standards_ for lithium-ion batteries as well.
Re: (Score:2)
We have them already [wikipedia.org]. (sort of, at least. I don't think they are formal standards [IEC or EIA or whatnot], but they are at least de facto standards.)
Every laptop battery I've taken apart is just based on 18650 cells. Why the laptops don't just take the cells alone is something I may never understand. Probably because they only have $10 worth of cells, and they'd rather sell you a $50+ battery.
It would be nice if they standardized some of the flat, polymer batteries though. like the kinds used in mobile phon
External 4xAA battery pack, USB port (Score:2)
It's obviously clunky, but it shouldn't be hard to set up an external battery pack with four AA rechargeables and a USB output. If you want to get fancy, add a voltage regulator chip as insurance, in case your camera doesn't have one built in, or just trust that 4x1.2 - 4x1.5 is safe.
Re: (Score:2)
Well it really depends on the camera you buy. If you want one of those ultra slim compacts, that will fit in your pocket, a slim LiPo batt makes sense.
Buy for professional dSLRs where you depend on your camera for your work, the handgrip battery compartment comes with a magazine which will accept AAs.
The drawback is you need EIGHT AAs to do the same job of the regular battery, which is only slightly larger than a C cell.
Re: (Score:2)
It's because AA batteries are an inconvenient form factor for a device that should be small and mostly rectangular...
You can still get them, but they're bulky compared to ones made with a boxy battery - http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/digital_cameras/powershot_a1200 [canon.com]
Give it some time and we may see a standard emerge there. Digital cameras are still not a mature product yet.
Re: (Score:2)
"xyzzy" Nope, still at work.
A hollow voice says "fool."
Re: (Score:2)
I used to be a big fan of AAs in cameras, but I'm pleased with the performance of my Li-Ion in my new camera. Battery management is a lot easier. I also picked up a spare battery for $5 off Amazon.
Re: (Score:2)
This was my first thought too. 'never need to change the battery' is newspeak for 'no user-replaceable battery'.
Re: (Score:2)
As recently as 2-3 years ago models that ran on AA batteries existed and some of them had decent battery life (a couple of hundred shots with flash). Now every new camera model is tied to a different proprietary lithium battery. This is for the good of the consumer of course, not so the camera manufacturer can gouge on batteries and make it more cost effective for the customer to replace the camera every 2-3 years. Makes me want to spit.
Some of Canon's A series Powershots still take AA batteries. Pentax is known to make AA powered DSLRs. The latest one, Pentax K-r came with Li-ion battery, but you can buy a special adapter to use AA.
Re: (Score:2)
I bought a Samsung
Re: (Score:3)
I'm in this very situation with my Logitech Dinovo Edge bluetooth keyboard for mac, which I like pretty darn well. After two years, the battery charge only lasts a couple hours. The battery is proprietary and sealed deep inside under layers of plastic and adhesive. The keyboard is still under warranty, but they refuse to service it. I can mail it back for a full refund, and they admitted to me that they will just trash it when it arrives, because they stopped making the mac edition. Even though the windows
Great. (Score:3)
Aww shucks (Score:5, Funny)
I just built a kernel specifically without the bluetooth modules in an attempt to save power on my laptop. Damn you progress.
Re:Aww shucks (Score:4, Informative)
Are you sure that's saving you power? Sometimes you have to initialize the device in order to activate the power saving features. It happens in Windows as well with wireless cards. The default state is "max power."
Re: (Score:2)
If the computer is used as a desktop at home, that means one less cable to disconnect when going portable (assuming like most consumers, you don't have a docking station).
Re: (Score:2)
doubt it (Score:2, Interesting)
what kind of batteries will not self discharge in less than 10 years even without a load ?....
Re:doubt it (Score:5, Funny)
Couple the keyboard with a battery charger (powered by its own batteries)
Re: (Score:2)
And if you believe that I've got a bridge in Arizona that leads to your own private barrier islands I want to sell you REALLY cheap. Think of the money you could make charging tolls as all those tourists use the bridge to drive onto your island in the beautiful Indian Ocean!
A better idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not put wires on the key board (perhaps even a USB connection), and the battery is not even needed. Wow.
Re: (Score:2)
You do realize there are many times a wireless connection may be preferred, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed I do. I think that it would be great to have fewer wires lurking about and having the perceived simplicity of wireless. Over the years, I have tried several wireless keyboards, from various manufacturers. Not one has ever made the cut. Finally, in great despair I went back to wired keyboards.
But in the end, while a wireless connection may be *preferred*, I suspect that it almost never required.
Re: (Score:2)
I have a Logitech MK320. It makes the cut fine for me as a programmer. Cheap too.
I went wireless because I was forever snagging cables on something, like my foot, and sending things flying onto the floor. Also easy to move the keyboard out of the way to prevent stray cats from typing on it in my absence.
Re: (Score:2)
So they haven't fit a need for you, so wth, let's stop using wireless keyboards.
I see the mind-think agrees. Power to the majority I guess.
Re: (Score:2)
Why not put wires on the key board (perhaps even a USB connection), and the battery is not even needed. Wow.
Added bonus - the kids and wife are less likely to walk away with it and misplace it. I don't know how much of my life I've wasted looking for remote controls.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Most AA don't have shelf life that long. (Score:2)
Just as long... (Score:5, Funny)
Just as long as you don't leave the capslock LED on.
Re: (Score:2)
power use... (Score:5, Interesting)
tinfoil hat time!
This bluetooth chip would draw a whopping .057mAh at 1.5v, or .0285mAh at 3v. (Assuming a 2500mAh AA cell type, with 10 years of power draw.)
You can easily generate this using biologically inplanted power sources, or from a standard solar powered calculator's photocell, or even from a thin film thermocoupler.
This would allow for ubiquitous bluetooth devices in a lot of surfaces, including things you would never consider to have need of a network stack.
Hell, you could power this stack on an AM crystal radio!
Re: (Score:2)
Or wirelessly, via coils in the desk:
http://www.powermat.com/ [powermat.com]
yay! (Score:2)
802.15.4 is closer to this than you think (Score:2)
Devices for 802.15.4 (what ZigBee uses), which is 250kbit max and low power device typically use just a tiny fraction of that, are already using AAA alkaline cells for multiple years (and then the shelf life starts to impact the cells). And the open source operating system TinyOS [tinyos.net] has made some interesting advancements with power management for its 802.15.4 based wireless stack. And the other front runner for open source wireless stacks is Contiki [contiki-os.org], with a rather nice mini IPv6 stack that is also capable of b
Battery life (Score:2)
I have never seen a AA battery that wasn't sucked dead in a few years just from the internal resistance of the battery itself. I suppose they're are referring to lithium batteries.
But what about the price (Score:2, Interesting)
Great. But how about they release a chipset that doesnt cost the earth in licensing fees, so that we can finally buy Bluetooth devices for less than $100.
I swear every time I look at mice and keyboards, proprietary 2.4GHz gear can be as low as $20 and you can get something very good for $50 or $60, but anything with Bluetooth is instantly $100 plus. It's the biggest barrier to adoption that I know.
Re:But what about the price (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, not even Amazon [amazon.com] has any sub-100 dollar bluetooth mice. And the certainly have no sub-100 dollar bluetooth keyboards [amazon.com] either!
And don't even get me started on Apple and their price gouging 100$+ mice, keyboards and trackpads [apple.com]! Granted, I can't find any 100$+ keyboards, mice or trackpads on Apple's store, but I'm sure they're there! It's not like you'd just pull that 100$+ number out of your ass, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder about the potential for greener computing. If the power usage is so low, drop the battery all together and add a solar cell with a low leakage super cap.
You mean like this? http://www.logitech.com/en-au/keyboards/keyboard/devices/7454 [logitech.com] . It's not bluetooth, but I think it'll work with tablet with full fledged USB port such as the Acer Iconia, or the GTab with usb adapter
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That will suck for gaming, at least FPS style.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The only way this is good for FPS is if you can keep the button pressed down for any reasonable amount of time. Sometimes you just gotta keep running and not stop. It would be crappy for you to have to let go and press the key again to keep running.
Re: (Score:3)
"I've got an IBM Model M that's at least from the mid 80's and works fine..."
Since they plan a ten-year battery life, they probably do not provide means of replacing the battery. In short, once you go to this type of keyboard, you are tied to never-ending replacements on a ten-year cycle. This isn't a feature, it's planned obsolescence.
Hang on to that Model M.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
I don't work for them -- I'm just a happy customer. Don't hang on to your Model M - get a new one in black with USB:
Unicomp Customizer [yahoo.net]
Unicomp SpaceSaver [yahoo.net]
I still use a wireless mouse, but ran an active USB cable to my comfey chair so I could put one of these beauties on my lap. Buckling springs FTW!
Re: (Score:2)
In any case, how much 10 year old computer equipment do you still have in use, especially $50 stuff (cables excepted).
Re: (Score:2)
Let's see:
A server, some hard/floppy/CD drives, a UPS (made in 1998), some other computers (just occasionally). Well, from the "under $50" category, I guess only the floppy and CD drives remain, but still. I also plan to use my keyboard (Logitech UltraX Flat - I like laptop-style keyboards) for the foreseeable future. I recently replace my mouse, because the old one was wearing out (left clicks didn't always register), but I wil use the current one until it wears out too (though I might have to buy a new mo
Re: (Score:3)
Note the lack of not-a-wire coming out of it.
Also, given that it's a Model M, I'm guessing you can also note the not-a-sound you are hearing right now from the deafness of using that keyboard for that long.
Lithium AAs can have a shelf life of a decade or more.
Re:Battery Shelf Life? (Score:5, Funny)
IBM Model M, a keyboard that you can use to kill a man, then use to type his obituary.
Re: (Score:2)
Model Ms don't need active cooling or anything; but they pull a few hundred milliamps at 5v, wired, so I'm guessing that good, honest, real keyswitches are not the choice of champions when it comes to low power devices...
Re: (Score:3)
With specialty lithium batteries that cost near as much as they keyboard :P Alkaline
The shelf life of an alkaline battery is only about 7 years.
The article mentioned nothing about Lithium batteries, but did explicitly mention "A set of two AA batteries", which presumably means commercial off the shelf batteries.
Keyboards are easy.
Nothing is happening on the keyboard unless keys are pressed. Pressing any key can also fire up the radio to send a pulse. There does not need to be constant communication, and the radio does not need to be running all the time, as long as the receiving end bluetooth stack is set to not time out. All you need is a fast
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Lithium batteries (Score:4, Interesting)
The bluetooth spec is extensible.
You don't have to have constant communications, you only have to answer polls, but only as often as the other side sends them.
With just a small profile change you could minimize that to once an hour if you wanted.
Re: (Score:2)
Other posts on this thread suggest otherwise.
With nearly zero drain, even alkaline will last 10 years.
Re: (Score:2)
Most stuff nowadays is cheap shit made in India or China or whatever? None of it is going to work in ten years time. You'll be lucky if you're still using it in 2 or 3 years. And that's if we've not moved onto another even better standard than Bluetooth, which doesn't seem to have taken off outside of headsets.
I have plenty of cheap newer stuff that has lasted me for a few years and I imagine will make 10. I have too many old wired keyboards at my house and don't have the heart to throw them out since they all work.
Out of interest, why exactly don't *all* TVs/DBD players etc use bluetooth? It would be quite handy to be able to use any phone made in the last 10 years to control them all using free, intuitive software, rather than a pile of ugly plastic crap, all of which need battery maintenance, all work in different ways etc?
For one thing interfeerence. Too many bluetooth devices will saturate your 2.4GHz band very quickly. You can also get interference from microwave ovens. Still IR has it's issues too. I'd like to see something on a different band that doesn't require line of sight.
Re: (Score:2)
This response is being typed on a 1987 vintage keyboard that came with an IBM PC-XT-286. It's still going strong, and as long as I never drink coffee in this room, expect it to keep going.
Of course that takes it out of the "stuff nowadays" category. Remember way back when solid state electronics were being sold as being more reliable?
I wonder what the net environmental impact is of removing all lead from solder, once you factor in the shortened lifetimes of electronic equipment, and the percentage of dead
Re: (Score:2)
FTA:
A set of two AA batteries would be enough to power a keyboard using the BCM20730 Bluetooth chip to connect with a computer for its entire lifetime
The silly thing is, chances are keyboards using such chip would actually include that set of two AA batteries.
As opposed to sticking a 1 cm^2 solar cell + supercapacitor onto it. Or a mechanism for "tilt back & forth a few times, use rest of the week". Well you get the point: if low-power enough, use that to get rid of batteries, not just prolong their life.
No thanks. I want to be able to replace the batteries if they die sooner than expected without throwing out the whole keyboard. This is exactly where things are headed. "I'm sorry your keyboard only lasted 2 years sir. You can buy our new improved model for just $79.95 which has been tested and rated to work for 15 years".....all lies designed to make you throw out perfectly functional equipment by crippling it.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you missed his point. If there are no batteries, then you have nothing you need to replace.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd like to avoid testicular cancer from having a nuclear device so close to my balls...
Hari Seldon (Score:2)
How you can you create nuclear batteries if Hari Seldon isn't even born yet. You lack a Foundation in psychohistory.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of people got sick making those watches. They would rub the brushes against their lips to make a fine point to paint with. The watches were later deemed to be dangerous and were no longer made.
But, could we design a special "solar cell" that would take that radiation and convert it to electricity?
How about miniature "radiation cell" array surrounding a low-level alp
Re: (Score:3)
Those watches are still made every day. The light is generated by radioactive decay. Its rather well understood, its not really that dangerous unless of course you're eating large quantities of a toxic metal because you think eating paint is a good idea.
In order for there to be enough useful energy there to harvest, it starts to become dangerous without shielding, then it gets complex and makes small scale production a ways off.