“iPod users may soon have a wireless power charging system, thanks to UK firm Splashpower,” Martyn Williams reports for Macworld UK. “The company exhibited its new technology at Ceatec in Japan… The company demonstrated the system in use and showed two prototype charging pads, or Splash Pads as the company is calling them. One was large enough to accommodate several devices and the other was smaller and offered enough space for a single device. To pick up the power field, gadgets must have a receiver coil built into them or have an adapter clipped on the back. The company demonstrated a clip-on adapter for an iPod mini and a Nokia mobile phone with a built-in coil. Both devices, when placed on the pads, began charging.”
Williams reports, “In addition to Splash Pads for the home, the company is talking to auto makers about building pads into cars, and is also in talks with hotel chains interested in building the pads into room furniture, said said Lily Cheng, CEO and co-founder of Splashpower.”
Full article here.
More info: http://www.splashpower.com/
Does this mean they’ve created wireless electricity? Wouldn’t that have more revolutionary implications than allowing us to charge our iPods?
I haven’t RTFA yet, but I don’t believe this is “wireless” electricity. It’s a concept that’s been around for a while.
It’s “contact” based instead of “wire” based. Like a big mat covered with tiny copper contacts that only conduct when there’s a complementary contact touching them. So when you put your hand on, nothing happens, but if you lay a device w/ this capability on it, that area conducts.
Not quite like putting your iPod on your desk and pushing “charge” and having it suck electricity from the ether.
So… Do you charge the charger then?
Loser!!
So now, if I need 15W to charge my phone or iPod, I will now need 30W given the amount of loss in this transfer method.
And, you drop your credit card on it and now call your company to get a new card.
But, you get a room full of EMI. Wow! Just what I wanted.
Cool. Real Cool.
It’s not “wireless” and it’s not contact based it’s electromagnetic coupling. You can get a toothbrush with this technology used for charging at Wal-Mart.
You are a dumbass!
All I wanna know is if I can ‘fro my hair by rubbing my head with it.
My electric toothbrush does that.
I lived in Japan and used an alternative form of mobile phone there (native only to Japan, I think) called a PHS. I remember wondering how the thing got charged because the charging cradle had no metal contacts of any sort and was just moulded plastic. Now I know!
Yup…got a Sonicare toothbrush that does it….
here’s a simple explanation
http://www.phys.ualberta.ca/~gingrich/phys512/latex2html/node31.html
PC Apologist – What you describe is perfectly workable, but this isn’t the same.
The text specifically refers to the device needing a receiver coil as it does use magnetic induction rather than a matrix of contacts.
As others have explained, that suggests that it would be rather inefficient and it’s a technique that’s been around for many years. I’ve got the electric toothbrush and I also had toys that used the same principle.
PR — although hardly simple, your “explanation” describes a completely unrelated phenomenon. the toothbrush/ipod charger is based off mutual inductance … which is in fact very simple. you basically have a coil in the base and another coil in the device. an alternating current is forced through the charger coil, which induces an electromagnetic field. this field then induces a current into your device’s coil too, which charges the battery. and, CTHL: “wireless electricity” is nothing special… think radio, or even light… just transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves. Brian: very little leakage… the charger is not an effective antenna and the field stays localized. not to mention, it’s a very low frequency.
Good Jon…You got the joke…
“Q. Will it damage my credit card, floppy disks or other magnetic data?
A. No. Splashpower technology is designed to keep safe the magnetic data stored on credit cards and other common storage media. This has been demonstrated by successful testing of credit cards, hard drives, floppy drives and other types of magnetic media.”
Ive been watching this company for almost 2 years, check out the website and you will learn a bit more. I am looking forward to this functionality for all my devices, cause lets face it, its a pain in the ass to plug everything in and easy to forget to plug things in.
Alan –
Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like a waste of energy.. solution to a problem that doesn’t exist? Who’s too lazy to put their device in its cradle, but not too lazy to put it on this little pad on their desk?
it’s a great idea for creating sealed electronics to waterproof them.
the GM EV1 used this method of charging, induction… It was safer, as there was no metal conduction.
a completely sealed unit could be totally waterproof
Hey, I have a Sonicare toothbrush too. I guess that means that you do have to charge the charger, because my toothbrush base plugs into the wall.
what happen to my ipod its not charging fully. pls tell me. apple ipod like tyhat best of all. thanks
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