“Just as the auto industry is racing to find the perfect electric engine, the tech sector is in a similar race to find a better battery or a new energy source to extend the life of portable devices,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “Being that Apple is the leading mobile devices company in the world today, they know all too well how important a breakthrough in this field may be. In today’s patent we see that Apple is exploring ways of building a miniature electromagnetic induction system right into future portable devices as a means of extending battery life.”
Purcher reports, “Apple’s patent is all about systems for harnessing power through electromagnetic induction utilizing printed coils. A system could include one or more moveable magnets adjacent to printed coils on a circuit. For example, a system could include one or more magnets that are operative to move alongside a circuit board that includes printed coils. The one or more magnets may move, for example, when a user shakes the system or when the user walks or runs while holding the device. The movement of the one or more magnets may create an electromotive force (e.g., a voltage) across the printed coils, and this force may be used to generate electric power.”
More in the full article, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]
Brilliant! If any company can make this work, it’s Apple.
Old ideas new again. A self winding phone
Uh, not quite. Self-winding phones use weights in conjunction with the flywheel effect to mechanically tension springs to wind a watch. What is being described here is entirely different.
Lose $200, go directly to Jail.
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!
Didn’t Apple have a patent on a method of charging and updating devices while they were still in their containers?
=:~)
Yes. That wasn’t just a LSD-induced dream.
Would need to be very sensitive so you wouldn’t have to actively “shake” the device. If it works for watches, then why not iPhones? There would, of course be a much higher generation of voltage needed.
Obviously, better for the iPhone than an iPad.
GREAT for an iPhone. If kept in a pocket, it would literally charge while walking.
I was rather hoping, from the headline, that they were referring to some kind of contactless charging system. MagSafe, as good as it is, is still flawed in several ways (notably the connection point of the charging wire to the “brick”); of course, it’s not something that Apple could patent, so I understand that they’re not particularly interested in putting money into making things easier for their customers.
(Funny – there used to be a computer company with a fruit-shaped, multi-color logo, which dedicated itself to this… I wonder where they went?)
Dude, wtf are you talkin’ about? Chill.
Apple should just cut to the chase and build a flying saucer so we can all move to Planet Apple. I hope the girls are as sleek as Apple’s products.
Etch-i-Pad
What boggles the mind is; with so much positive things coming out of Apple. Why is the market dumping apple?
This seems to happen alot! Why, why why?
I don’t know…
Because they are pissed they didn’t buy at 25 before the split.
So they try to artificially drop Apple’s price to get in and ride it back up.
The whole market is down today.
@ emmanyche. Apple has a patent about an inductive charger over here:
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2010/04/a-new-patent-describes-apples-next-great-thing.html
I’d like that too. A wireless charger. HP’s tablet will have one this summer. Yet, in theory this current apple patent holds a lot of potential. It will extend the battery life of devices that you have with you on a hike or just walking around the office or campus. I’d have to see what kind of extra life it’ll give our devices in reality to judge this better. That’s why I say theoretical. It’s not a magic bullet, but it’s a down to earth advancement if they can get it to market in good time.
“in theory this current … holds a lot of potential”
Bah-doom-tish!
There are a lot of “may’s” and “if’s” in that statement.
That said combine this with the solar panel behind the LCD display and it could be magic in the making.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
— Arthur C. Clarke
This charging system would work well with the masturbatory crowd.
0_o Tmi much?
@ cubert. Are you twelve or something? Somethings should be kept to yourself and that’s one of them! Dork.
vc querem saber o porque da maça??? é simples pq no paraiso de adao e eva a maça era o fruto proibido e tudo que proibido gera curiosidade e cobiça