[LINK] Fwd: vip-l: Article: power over the air]

Craig Sanders cas at taz.net.au
Thu Apr 12 07:28:59 AEST 2007


On Wed, Apr 11, 2007 at 08:21:00PM +1000, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> >http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/04/01/8403349/index.htm?postversion=2007033007 
> >
> >  CNNmoney
> >  Powered by
> >
> >  Death of the cell phone charger
> >  A Pennsylvania entrepreneur has developed technology that gives you
> >  all the battery juice you need directly from the air. Business 2.0
> >  reports.
> >  Business 2.0 Magazine
> >  By Melanie Haiken, Business 2.0 Magazine
> >  March 30 2007: 7:08 AM EDT
> >
> >  (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- How much money could you make from a
> >  technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called
> >  Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked
> >  agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its
> >  first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch
> >  their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.
> >
> >  It may sound futuristic, but Powercast's platform uses nothing more
> >  complex than a radio--and is cheap enough for just about any company
> >  to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall,
> >  and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to
> >  make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver
> >  turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device's
> >  battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.
> >
> >  Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your
> >  desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity. How big can
> >  it get? "The sky's the limit," says John Shearer, Powercast's
> >  founder and CEO. He estimates shipping "many millions of units" by
> >  the end of 2008.

right. and this is the sort of thing we need, just as everyone's
starting to realise that we have to cut our power usage and increase the
efficiency of our electrical devices if we want to survive (as a viable,
modern civilisation) beyond the next 50-100 years?

this is more wasteful than just leaving wall-warts plugged in and turned
on all the time.

and air is not a particularly good conductor, so the power-loss during
transmission must be many times that of standard plug-in rechargers.


now, if the receiver could pick up stray/waste RF emitted from devices
already running for some other purpose, that would be neat.


craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

They are cold-blooded. They are completely ruthless about protecting
what they have. The only thing they connect to is the money aspect of
life.  Let's face it: That's the American way.
		-- Jeffery M. Johnson, regional chairman of the District
		   of Columbia United Way, speaking of drug dealers.



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