Posted on 01/08/2007 4:29:23 AM PST by HarmlessLovableFuzzball
A Pennsylvania start-up says it has the answer to one of the biggest problems in mobile phones: battery life.
After three years of keeping its technology under close guard, Powercast has come to CES 2007 to get consumer and manufacturer attention. Powercast is a radio frequency that is transmitted over a small area, and its energy is "harvested"--wirelessly--to give power to small devices like cell phones.
While it's presented as wireless power, Powercast isn't just a replacement for a universal charger. Instead, it's meant to either continuously charge a battery or replace the need for them altogether.
It works like this: a transmitter can be placed anywhere--in a lamp, for example, that is plugged into the wall and sits on a table. The transmitter in the lamp sends out a continuous, low RF signal. Anything with either AA or AAA batteries set within its range--and equipped with a Powercast receiver, which is the size of your fingernail--will be continuously charged.
"Our solution is, if talk time (on a cell phone) is 5 1/2 hours, by trickle-charging (it) at work, now talk time is 10 hours because the battery never gets to dead," John Shearer, CEO of Powercast, said in an interview.
There are many applications for Powercast, said Shearer, but the company is making the PC peripherals market a priority. Think a wireless keyboard or mouse with no battery, or a hermetically sealed battery that the customer never need access again.
Major CE and IT manufacturers will have to agree to build Powercast capability into their products, and thus far Powercast is revealing only Philips as a future partner. The first Powercast product will come to market by the end of 2007, the company says.
CES is so awesome. I promised myself that someday I'll go see it live, but not this year.
I just love all the announcements..
Will use too much electricity. Will not be energy-efficient. Only good if you are not paying for the electricity, such as at work, at an airport, etc.
I'd bet the bigger problem is fears, real or imagined, that the high power radio waves in close proximity will cause cancer or other illness.
Too bad he never read a cellphone manual then, because mine (MOT) points out that if the battery is never allowed to drain down, it loses capacity. Eventually a 1500 Ma/Hr battery has a 1000 Ma/Hr, then 800, etc. till the phone needs a replacement one. So as soon as you get away from the RF Power environment, the phone croaks soon thereafter.
I guess we will all be getting "Trader alert! Buy this penny stock!!" spams any minute now.
HMMM, ever read Heinlein's "Waldo"
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
... came out in the spring, around 4/1
That's correct. As far as efficiency goes it's terribly inefficient. That's why its viable only for small amounts of power where efficiency is not the overriding concern.
Bump. . .for a later read. . .
It probably generates more RFI than a carload of dimmer switches.
i guess if the mobile phone can "harvest" the RF energy, your spleen, liver, kidneys, lymph nodes and pancreas can "harvest" the energy too...
Plug a small solar charger into the dashboard. Unless the vehicle is stored in complete darkness, it'll get "some" charge.
In a garage with few or no windows.
Lithium ion batteries can be formed into a wide variety of shapes and sizes, so as to efficiently fill available space in the devices they power.
Li-ion batteries are lighter than other equivalent secondary batteries — often much lighter. The energy is stored in these batteries through the movement of lithium ions. Lithium is the third lightest element, giving a substantial saving in weight compared to batteries using much heavier metals. However, the bulk of the electrodes are effectively "housing" for the ions and add weight, and in addition "dead weight" from the electrolyte, current collectors, casing, electronics and conductivity additives reduce the charge per unit mass to little more than that of other rechargeable batteries. The forte of the Li-ion chemistry is the high open circuit voltage in comparison to aqueous batteries (such as lead acid, nickel metal hydride and nickel cadmium). [citation needed]
Li-ion batteries do not suffer from the memory effect. They also have a low self-discharge rate of approximately 5% per month, compared with over 30% per month in nickel metal hydride batteries and 20% per month in nickel cadmium batteries.[citation needed]
wikipedia.com
Maybe Verizon/Motorola left in some old NiCad text in my manual!!
Many tech manuals are written hastily and grudgingly it seems.
Althought they have no memory effect, they will last longer if not kept fully charged.
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