Wireless Power

150 points posted to Broadband and Mobility by drakewolf 02/28/07

"Wireless" power

Due to the overwhelming wave of customers moving to laptops, the wires that tie them to the wall is getting negative mindshare. Customers are promised 'wireless' but they see this wire and think 'yeah-right!' Now it's not a major pain point because there is no other option. However, If a competitor does this before Dell, expect to see an overwhelming market demand spring up very rapidly. Especially if Apple does it. Apple is likely to be first to bring this successfully to market, HP next with Dell falling after them due to successful peripherals outside the computer.

Wireless power is the idea of using alternative delivery methods of power to the laptop or other electronic device - removing or consolidating the power bricks and plugs that are now specific to each and every electronic device into a single base station that uses close proximity inductive or transmitted power & removes the need for direct plugs.

For a good if brief blurb about wireless power and it's possibilities check out this link from MIT.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/wireless.html

Wikipedia also has a good article about wireless power, it's history, the different technologies and some uses. It gets into things like microwave use to power for air-planes & satellites. Ignore that as it has no relevance to this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power

A few companies are currently working on this - mainly focused on getting power to mobile devices like cell phones though several of the technologies state that they can support enough power to handle charging, or even running a laptop. By no means is this an endorsement of any of these companies. Most are new to market and have little history I can reference about the real capabilities of their technology.

http://www.powercastco.com/ * Best emerging tech of CES 2007

http://wildcharge.com/

http://ecoupled.com/index.html

http://www.splashpower.com/

Other new articles and blogs about wireless power and about these companies. Note that Acer began trying to make this work in 2003 using the now vanished start up MobileWise but no products came to market. Common themes mention cost of the tech and Chicken & Egg syndrome - no one is going to buy the power charger until there are things that use it - and no device manufacturer wants to make a device that uses a very expensive power delivery system without that cost being shared across devices.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,743234,00.asp

http://pcworld.about.com/news/Oct302002id106482.htm

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/08/1151226

Also note the discussions about integrating this kind of power device into furniture. While I think that's likely a non-starter due to the diversity of furniture available, the desire for furniture level of integration is appropriate. The customer of this tech doesn't want to think about it - they just want it to work - just like furniture isn't thought about, it's just used.

Other discussed uses: transmit power wirelessly to clocks, industrial sensors, fire & smoke detectors, etc. All the things you would normally insert a battery into.

Usage situations:

Think about a nice looking (veneer/leather) pad spread out on top of a board room or conference room table. The people who sit at that table don’t have to worry about plugging in their laptops, cell phones, PDA's or blackberries. Even if the meeting runs way over time. The pad charges the conference call phone, projector and projector remote that gets placed on it at the same time as powering/charging the laptops.

Now move that pad to the airport. There are tables set up that you can set your laptop, cell phone or other device down, have a cup of coffee and get recharged for the next 2 hour flight.

Now move a smaller version of that pad to the entry way of your home. You drop your cell phone, the Bluetooth earpiece, PDA, digital camera and MP3 device down, pick up your laptop and the media center remote and sit down at the couch. It's simple, no issues with charging stations, no wires. A much better and transparent experience for the customer. Right now, my entry way table has a cluster of power bricks and an unsightly mess of wires. I have to sort through the myriad plugs to find the right one for the device I want charged. This pad would replace all of them. I would actively look for devices that used my power-pad since I don't want that power brick mess or the worry about plugging something in with the wrong brick & plug & frying my electronics or starting a fire.

Now move that pad to your desktop. Currently on my home desktop is a cable modem, wireless base station, laptop, monitor, printer, digital camera dock, mouse and keyboard. All of these things require power - especially if they are wireless devices. We've got the data wireless via wi-fi, Bluetooth and soon UWB. Now the devices can be truly wireless without relying on heavy & expensive batteries. In some cases like your monitor there will likely be issues getting it powered though this kind of device. And the customer will be OK with that since that device isn't going to move around much. But the rest…

Now move that power pad into new shapes like the car cup-holder or the vehicle center console 'cooler' that usually just collects junk. Imagine that after a long day of use, you get in your car and head to the country club. By the time you get there all of your devices are charged and ready for extended use. No need to only plug in the lowest charged one because you only have one power jack. No need to have a swarm of wires leading from your dashboard when you have more than one.

If the work at MIT comes to fruition, expect to have a power base station(s) similar to your wi-fi base station instead of a table-top pad. Then you don’t even need to take the items out of your pockets and they'll get charged.

Next Steps:

Like Bluetooth, wi-fi and other new technologies a standard must be set for this to be successful. Dell can be a major player in those talks, helping to guide the discussion to include laptop capable power transmission. Good partnerships would be with Apple as an alternate computer and peripheral manufacturer that isn't a major direct competitor, cell phone manufacturers like Motorola and Samsung, along with many of our other peripheral vendors like Logitech and Microsoft.

Wired power is a fact of life right now - but to truly get to the end-state our futurists portray, we need to remove that final leash to the wall.