Wireless Technology Aims to Kill the Power Cord

Megalith

Megalith

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A world without power cords would be awesome, right? It sounds like there will be at least two technologies that will allow devices to remain charged without being plugged in.

The Los Angeles-based company has developed technology that transmits ultrasonic waves (at a register well beyond what’s audible) that are translated by devices as a microscopic quiver; this vibration is converted back into an electrical charge to power anything with a battery, no wires or wall plugs required.
 
They say the RF from your cell phone is frying your brain. Now they want to put more RF into the arena. We will all be Zombies. I guess it's not much different than the current state of awareness, watching people talking on their phone, walking into walls, glass doors, open man holes, swimming pools etc.
 
whiz187 said:
They say the RF from your cell phone is frying your brain. Now they want to put more RF into the arena. We will all be Zombies.
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First thing I thought, too.

Something to keep in mind is that according to String Theory, everything is a effectively a wave. Celestial bodies such as Earth have their own "song" based upon their vibration frequency. It's all about energy. A "world without cords" is not only possible but inevitable. The real key is, as always, efficiency. Wireless in our current world is mostly about convenience and, in some cases, about actually creating things that improve productivity. It will be quite some time yet before cords become obsolete (not in our lifetimes) but there are some areas where it could change the way we live.
 
uBeam isn't RF. It's sound waves. Totally different animal. Same questions arise, however: how much is too much?
 
So I guess this means there will finally be a market for the cordless extension cord. :p
 
I don't believe in wireless for stationary stuff. Wireless is great for stuff that has to be mobile but it just makes no sense for stuff that does not have to. Why put more RF into the air than needed.
 
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Woo, now my lamps can work some days, not others, and flicker on and off randomly.
 
wireless power is inefficient as hell and gets worse the bigger the distance

sure as hell wont be using wind and solar for it
 
whiz187 said:
They say the RF from your cell phone is frying your brain. Now they want to put more RF into the arena. We will all be Zombies. I guess it's not much different than the current state of awareness, watching people talking on their phone, walking into walls, glass doors, open man holes, swimming pools etc.
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No they don't they want to just go balls to the wall
has developed technology that transmits ultrasonic waves (at a register well beyond what’s audible) that are translated by devices as a microscopic quiver; this vibration is converted back into an electrical charge to power anything with a battery, no wires or wall plugs required.
Click to expand...
Here's the kicker, they're sending sound waves, which regardless if they can be heard or not means they'll be dumping energy into the air, and a very small fraction of that will end up powering the phone, the rest will just make the air a tiny bit warmer.

My thought after reading this... Learn2Physics!
 
Environmental activists need to be against this. Massive energy inefficiency compared to copper wires.
 
Neat. Haven't heard of using sound waves to transmit power before. Hope it has decent efficiency. This is definitely not killing all power cords.

Just those ones for small low power networked devices that would be "wireless" except for the requirement they need a small amount of electricity to power them.
 
If I didn't need my cable to constantly charge my phone, I would never be able to find that thing when I actually needed it.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
If I didn't need my cable to constantly charge my phone, I would never be able to find that thing when I actually needed it.
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But since the battery would always be charged, at least you would be able to find it using a locator program from your PC.
 
Just like WiFi has eliminated wired Ethernet....... Oh, wait.

I'll stick to wired connections whenever possible, as they are faster and more reliable.
 
sfsuphysics said:
No they don't they want to just go balls to the wall

Here's the kicker, they're sending sound waves, which regardless if they can be heard or not means they'll be dumping energy into the air, and a very small fraction of that will end up powering the phone, the rest will just make the air a tiny bit warmer.

My thought after reading this... Learn2Physics!
Click to expand...

So what you are saying is they are causing global warming?
 
Exavior said:
So what you are saying is they are causing global warming?
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No, YOU are causing global warming, all because you don't want to have a cable to charge your computer/phone/etc, ignoring the fact you use a cable to power the thing you're causing global warming with.
 
sfsuphysics said:
No, YOU are causing global warming, all because you don't want to have a cable to charge your computer/phone/etc, ignoring the fact you use a cable to power the thing you're causing global warming with.
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Sorry what?
 
Exavior said:
Sorry what?
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ok lets work this out


for this to work you have convert from electrical energy to mechanical (loss) to sound (loss) over some distance (BIG LOSS) back to mechanical (loss) back to electrical (loss)

you would be lucky if its 10% efficient even wireless induction charging is SUPER lossy and thats with the coils right next to each other

and good luck powering any thing pulling more then a few milliamps
 
So, directional speaker (high freq audio is directional and 'low power') and a microphone on the receiving end. Sorry, didn't read the article, but my bet is on a piezoelectric structure that can be forced to resonance using pulses for efficiency.
Well sounds better than induction.
 
Elios said:
ok lets work this out


for this to work you have convert from electrical energy to mechanical (loss) to sound (loss) over some distance (BIG LOSS) back to mechanical (loss) back to electrical (loss)

you would be lucky if its 10% efficient even wireless induction charging is SUPER lossy and thats with the coils right next to each other

and good luck powering any thing pulling more then a few milliamps
Click to expand...

This right here. Wires are better. Hell, even my wifi hotspot is usually plugged (tethered) into my laptop, as it works better. That and it doesn't kill the battery.

We need to make things MORE efficient, not less. This only benefits people who are too lazy to plug something in. Stop being so lazy, yah slackers! :p
 
spugnor said:
This right here. Wires are better. Hell, even my wifi hotspot is usually plugged (tethered) into my laptop, as it works better. That and it doesn't kill the battery.

We need to make things MORE efficient, not less. This only benefits people who are too lazy to plug something in. Stop being so lazy, yah slackers! :p
Click to expand...

if we had nearly 100% nuclear power id be like whatever
 
Elios said:
ok lets work this out


for this to work you have convert from electrical energy to mechanical (loss) to sound (loss) over some distance (BIG LOSS) back to mechanical (loss) back to electrical (loss)

you would be lucky if its 10% efficient even wireless induction charging is SUPER lossy and thats with the coils right next to each other

and good luck powering any thing pulling more then a few milliamps
Click to expand...

I still don't know where I was supporting this technology to be personally held responsible for how it works. Yes it is shit, I understand that.
 
Exavior said:
I still don't know where I was supporting this technology to be personally held responsible for how it works. Yes it is shit, I understand that.
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basically I was saying whomever uses this technology, whether it be you or anyone else, would be ultimately responsible, not the creators of the product.
 
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