Posted on 09/10/2009 5:48:15 AM PDT by Halfmanhalfamazing
With the dramatic rise in the number of electronic devices that are used in everyday lives powered by batteries that often need recharging; the costs, resources and management of multiple, incompatible power cords, and adapters have become cumbersome and time consuming for the typical user. One of the solutions is to unify chargers, but Intel Corp. proposes to charge electronics wirelessly.
Recently Intel demonstrated its Wireless Resonant Energy Link (WREL) – the transfer of electricity without using any wires. This technology could allow people to cut the last cord that keeps mobile devices tethered. Potentially, devices can be charged seamlessly in various public places, such as cafés or restaurants, which will significantly boost battery lives of notebooks and other electronics that consumes higher amounts of energy and require relatively frequent recharging.
(Excerpt) Read more at xbitlabs.com ...
Of course, every couple of years, someone does a study and asserts that cell phones cause brain cancer, and then someone else does a study that says this isn't true. Imagine the fun people will have studying whether wireless power causes cancer!
Oh man, I have dreamed of a wireless house for decades. I have “issues” with wires.
But a wireless laptop would be just divine.
I admit to being entirely clueless about how things like this work, but I have this question: the energy has to come from somewhere, so, who is supplying (and more importantly) paying for this magical energy that will be transfered in public places that is touted here?
Yes, a model of business for every cafe. A bunch of deadbeats drinking one coffee and sponging off their electric bill.
There has to be a table, or some zone that the devices sit on; and according to the geek in me, the closer you are to the transmitter, the better. The laws of physics state that the the further away you get, the exponentially less power you will receive. So, I doubt you can leave your laptop in the car while you are at starbucks and get a noticable charge. I wonder how this will impact pacemakers?
What's old is new again.
-—————so, who is supplying (and more importantly) paying for-—————
Tax the rich! Those SOBs! Soak ‘em! I have a right to wireless device charging!
LOL
If you’re at starbucks, and starbucks has the device plugged into their wall plug, then starbucks pays it.
Who pays for the free wifi hotspots whenever you find them? Same deal.
This is one technologies that I will have to see to believe it. I am very open minded but there are some things that I will just have to see.
You do if you buy something from the store. The cost of a Kwh is not that much, I think it cost something like 20 cents a day to run my laptop if I leave it on all day.
To my understanding there is energy everywhere, it is what holds atoms together. I know this is different from recharging electrical devices, but the energy that is everywhere around us will be tapped someday. This free recharge idea is probably as much pie in the sky as tapping the energy that is everywhere around us.
Don’t recognize the term Intel’s applying to this, but it seems one company or another “discovers” this concept every few years.
Invariably, it turns out to be some sort of inductive coil embedded in a pad or platform that powers a device resting on the pad, or positioned a few inches away. Devices get great power when within an inch or two of the power source, moderate power within 6 inches, and practically no power at any greater distance.
It always reminds me of the story about the farmer who buried huge inductive coils beneath the public power lines running across his property. He supposedly powered his entire farm for quite a while before being discovered. He argued he wasn’t stealing power, because he never connected to, or modified, the power lines in any way.
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The weak nuclear forces you are thinking of, are not going to be tapped any time soon. Why? Think of the concept of 'localization'.
We get energy by moving 'something' from one spot with a high density to another spot of lower density. Whether it's a bullet propelled by expanding gunpowder, or a dam releasing water to turn turbines, or gasoline detonating in your engine's cylinder, or a battery moving electons from one terminal though a load, to another terminal. Wind blows from a high pressure area to a low pressure area, heat radiates from a hot place to a cold place. We get a percentage of the energy we use for everyday life, by tapping off this principle. Water flows downhill, hot air rises, expanding gases push, electrons flow from areas of high negative charge to positive charge (yeah, conventional thinking has electrons flowing from positive to negative, but electrons are negatively charged, and like charges repell, right?)
Now if you are talking nuclear fusion or fission - that's different. But you just can't cast your net and say "I now have a net full of energy". Just doesn't work that way - unless someone a lot smarter than us has found a trick that no one else has discovered yet.
The free recharge idea is probably already being used at your home right now. My Braun toothbrush has no wires, it recharges when it sits in it's stand without a single electrical connection. You see, there is a inductor in the plastic base, and another in the sealed toothbrush. When you place it in the stand, the two inductors electrically couple to each other, the current flowing in the base stand starts up a current flow in my toothbrush - which recharges the batteries in my toothbrush.
My Braun toothbrush is over 10 years old, still works great. I suspect that what Intel is proposing is just an adaptation of what Braun has been doing for over a decade.
And he's correct, however he certainly put a load on the public power. Probably got nailed for it pretty well too.
The power company likely had a huge voltage drop along a certain section of their power line, all they had to do was isolate where the voltage dropped, then do some simple investigations. Wouldnt' take long to discover, if someone took the time to investigate where the voltage drop was coming from. Based upon my experience, the power company is very concerned about losses in their system. I think liability is a bigger concern than anything else.
Next time you are in Wal-mart, visit the Braun electric toothbrush display. The toothbrush recharges when it's sitting on a plastic stand. There is an inductor in the stand that is covered in plastic. The toothbrush has another inductor designed in the handle. When the toothbrush is in the stand, the inductors electroncially 'couple' and a current flow is induced in the toothbrush, thereby charging the batteries in the toothbrush without any wires, conductors, plugs or nothing. My toothbrush, which I have used for 10+ years, still functions perfectly.
I read an article somewhat like this a year or so ago. It seems that they can “harness” the electricity that’s in our atmosphere and the electricity that “leaks” from the wires around us.
I say...show me the money!
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