Power from the Air

[JaJae]

Powercast's technology cuts the electric cord - April 1, 2007

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.


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.
For years, electricity experts said this kind of thing couldn't be done. "If you had asked me seven months ago if this was possible, I would have said, 'Are you dreaming? Have you been smoking something?'" says Govi Rao, vice president and general manager of solid-state lighting at Philips (Charts). "But to see it work is just amazing. It could revolutionize what we know about power."
World's 11 coolest products
So impressed was Rao after witnessing Powercast's demo last summer that he walked away jotting down a list of the industries to which the technology could immediately be applied: lighting, peripherals, all kinds of handheld electronics. Philips partnered with Powercast last July, and their first joint product, a wirelessly powered LED light stick, will hit the market this year. Computer peripherals, such as a wireless keyboard and mouse, will follow in 2008.
Broadcasting power through the air isn't a new idea. Researchers have experimented with capturing the radiation in radio frequency at high power but had difficulty capturing it at consumer-friendly low power. "You'd have energy bouncing off the walls and arriving in a wide range of voltages," says Zoya Popovic, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Colorado who works on wireless electricity projects for the U.S. military.
That's where Shearer came in. A former physicist based in Pittsburgh, he and his team spent four years poring over wireless electricity research in a lab hidden behind his family's coffee house. He figured much of the energy bouncing off walls could be captured. All you had to do was build a receiver that could act like a radio tuned to many frequencies at once.
"I realized we wanted to grab that static and harness it," Shearer says. "It's all energy."
Entrepreneur finds 'suite' dreams
So the Powercast team set about creating and patenting that receiver. Its tiny but hyperefficient receiving circuits can adjust to variations in load and field strength while maintaining a constant DC voltage. Thanks to the fact that it transmits only safe low wattages, the Powercast system quickly won FCC approval--and $10 million from private investors.
Powercast says it has signed nondisclosure agreements to develop products with more than 100 companies, including major manufacturers of cell phones, MP3 players, automotive parts, temperature sensors, hearing aids, and medical implants.
The last of those alone could be a multibillion-dollar market: Pacemakers, defibrillators, and the like require surgery to replace dead batteries. But with a built-in Powercast receiver, those batteries could last a lifetime.
"Everyone's looking to cut that last cord," says Alex Slawsby, a consultant at Innosight who specializes in disruptive innovation. "Think of the billion cell phones sold last year. If you could get Powercast into a small percentage of the high-end models, those would be huge numbers."
Could Powercast's technology also work for larger devices? Perhaps, but not quite yet. Laptop computers, for example, use more than 10 times the wattage of Powercast transmissions.
But industry trends are on Shearer's side: Thanks to less energy-hungry LCD screens and processors, PC power consumption is slowly diminishing. Within five years, Shearer says, laptops will be down to single-digit wattage--making his revenue potential even more electrifying.
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This is absolutely amazing. If the technology gets better imagine powering laptops, tvs, stereos, etc all wireless. This has some serious potential.

[Scrum]

That is amazing.


We're getting closer and closer to Star Trek every day.

[motivez]

Uh, why do I get the feeling today's date has something to do with this article

[Ardentfrost]

No shit. Wireless power has been an EE joke for a LONG time because it is impossible.

Plus, even if it were possible, we (humans in general) are scared of all the RF exposure we get on a day-to-day basis. Think of the emag waves that would have to travel through the air for it to be possible to power things wirelessly. We'd all die from cancer within a generation

[JaJae]

Powercast looking to bring wireless power to reality - Engadget

Harvesting RF energy - CES 2007 - Consumer Electronics Show Las Vegas - CNET.com

[AVengeance]

I made a home-made AM radio that was powered on nothing more than the radio waves. That's not futuristic at all. In fact, I did it when I was a little kid.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

No shit. Wireless power has been an EE joke for a LONG time because it is impossible.

Plus, even if it were possible, we (humans in general) are scared of all the RF exposure we get on a day-to-day basis. Think of the emag waves that would have to travel through the air for it to be possible to power things wirelessly. We'd all die from cancer within a generation

No dude, it's possible, and I know several people, close friends actually, who are heavily involved in the technology

Also, a lab in my department is perfecting batteries that are as thin as paper.

[Dumpy Dooby]

Wow, this is pretty cool. We're making a move away from having wires. I've noticed that there's also been a trend toward developing new technology that make use of organic compounds, i.e., that storage device that somehow magically stores data in the protein shells of viruses. wtf? They said a harddrive the size of matchbox would be able to store some outrageous amount of data (I don't recall the figure, but it was 50+TB).

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

Wow, this is pretty cool. We're making a move away from having wires. I've noticed that there's also been a trend toward developing new technology that make use of organic compounds, i.e., that storage device that somehow magically stores data in the protein shells of viruses. wtf? They said a harddrive the size of matchbox would be able to store some outrageous amount of data (I don't recall the figure, but it was 50+TB).

Nanotechnology already allows HDs to be the size of quarters and allow for terabyte storage. IBM already has them made, I've seen them.

[Dumpy Dooby]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

Nanotechnology already allows HDs to be the size of quarters and allow for terabyte storage. IBM already has them made, I've seen them.

I believe you. I was talking about organic compounds being used for it.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

I believe you. I was talking about organic compounds being used for it.

Yes, they're also using them, but I don't know how far along they are. They're getting into organic molecules as machines, chips, etc. I've seen many talks on them, but all I've seen at this point is basic research.

[beachdude]

Here is a website that explains this new technology.
Powercast Technology - Wireless Power

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by beachdude

Here is a website that explains this new technology.
Powercast Technology - Wireless Power

Thanks. And welcome to the site