Non-contact charging getting closer?

I know this is demanding a lot and is a bit far away, but I will be happy with contactless charging when you don't have to place it on something. Here even though there is no power cord connecting to the phone, you still have to place it on the charger mat.

For me the meaning of contactless charging will be having the charger in one corner of the room and I am seated some 7-8 feet away, fiddling with the phone and charging it at the same instance...

Looking forward to this.

Can't beleive it is taking so long to get to market. The principle is nothing new from what I can see. We have been using it in rechargeable electric toothbrushes for ages (Both ends need to be sealed to avoid risk of contact with water). Just about all these portable devices seam to operate off a 5 volt charger, so I think the solution could be quite universal. And potentially applicable to existing devices by adding reciever into a replacement battery.

Don't see what's new and worth patenting (in genuine ennovation terms). Now if someone could just scrap the Patent system (or seriously reform it) we could get so much more clever stuff out of the real innovative companies...

Zuber

malerocks wrote:I know this is demanding a lot and is a bit far away, but I will be happy with contactless charging when you don't have to place it on something. Here even though there is no power cord connecting to the phone, you still have to place it on the charger mat.

For me the meaning of contactless charging will be having the charger in one corner of the room and I am seated some 7-8 feet away, fiddling with the phone and charging it at the same instance...

The trick would be not cooking anything that crosses the contactless path or discovering a few years latter that being in close proximity of such a device gradually fries your brain etc. When you consider the amount of trouble mobiles have had about causing damage, I can't see it happening an time soon.

Bring on the power mats 😊

Zuber

For me the meaning of contactless charging will be having the charger in one corner of the room and I am seated some 7-8 feet away, fiddling with the phone and charging it at the same instance...

The problem seems to be basic physics, it's pretty difficult to send electricity in a specific direction to a specific place without anything physical for it to flow along such as a wire. It's also (thankfully!) difficult to get electricity to flow through large amounts of air even in an uncontrolled manner.

I don't quite see how scrapping the patent system, thereby removing any protection for a company's investment, is going to help innovation. If there was no patent system in place, and therefore no obligation to make public what progress individuals or companies have made, everyone would be trying to do the same thing in parallel; that would definitely not be good for innovation.

People who make these types of wild assertions usually have absolutely no idea how the patent system really works...

I really don't like the idea of being 70% efficient. I'd much rather have a cable and charge my phone faster and waste less electricity.

There is supposed to be a system coming which would "scavenge" electricity from all around (ie. from radio signals, electro-magnetic fields etc.) which sounds great; no cables, no charging mat, just "free" electricity. Mind you, it sounds too good to be true...

"People who make these types of wild assertions usually have absolutely no idea how the patent system really works..."

I think most people without a vested interest are agreed that the patent system is abused as much as it is abused.

If someone comes up with a genuinly innovative solution that they are activly intending to bring to market, then fair enough. Beyond that, scrap it...

Sitting there, thinking up ideas that you can patent so that noone else can use them in the process of developing a solution is a waste of time (imho).

Zuber

I think most people without a vested interest are agreed that the patent system is abused as much as it is abused.

If someone comes up with a genuinly innovative solution that they are activly intending to bring to market, then fair enough. Beyond that, scrap it...

Sitting there, thinking up ideas that you can patent so that noone else can use them in the process of developing a solution is a waste of time (imho).

Zuber

Zuber, you're concentrating entirely on the downsides of patents, and completely ignoring their upsides. That kind of thinking leads to some really crazy and stupid conclusions.

That's like saying politicians are corrupt so we shouldn't have democracy, or food makes you fat so you shouldn't eat, or air has pollution in it so you shouldn't breathe.

If you get rid of patents COMPLETELY, how do researchers earn any money from their ideas? Why would a company pay a researcher if the researcher's idea isn't protected by law? What would stop one researcher stealing another's ideas?

If something very useful has drawbacks you fix them or you learn to live with them. You don't just give up on it completely.

I really don't like the idea of being 70% efficient. I'd much rather have a cable and charge my phone faster and waste less electricity.

You're right that cables are always best, but I could see a market for charging panels in situations where people don't have a charger with them.