Sony pulls plug on cabled power
Demos wirelessly powered telly
Sony claims to have proven that reaching around the back of your TV to find that elusive power plug could, one day, become a problem of the past.
The electronics giant has trialled an in-house “wireless power supply system” in Japan, which the firm claimed enabled a 22in LCD to wirelessly receive around 60W of power sent over a distance of about 50cm.
Sony's tech allowed power to be sent wirelessly over a 50cm gap
Sony’s system is based on high-frequency “magnetic resonance” technology, which produces a magnetic field by feeding power into a 40cm-wide square coil of wires.
When another coil is brought within the magnetic field, a current is induced in the second coil, feeding power to the TV.
But the technology is far from perfect, Sony admitted. At least 80W of power was originally pumped into the first coil, but the technology’s low efficiency meant that 25 per cent of the energy was lost during transmission.
The tech's range can be boosted by using relay units
The firm hasn’t said how it plans to improve the technology’s efficiency, but claimed that by placing relay units in between the first and second coil the transfer distance can be extended by a further 30cm.
Something tells us that it will be a while before Bravia TVs set-up for wireless power transmission make it over to Blighty. ®
COMMENTS
Wright vs Boffo The Clown
"Do you mean to say Mr Wright that you can't get across the Atlantic? What an incredibly expensive and impractical waste of effort your Flyer is, you must be bonkers!"
Do you mean to say Mr Boffo that your invention cannot reach <insert-bad-country-du-jour>? What an incredibly expensive and impractical waste of effort your Custard Pie Cannon is, you must be bonkers!
Magnetic fields are not a health hazard
The earth's magnetic field here at the surface, where we all live our whole lives (practically), has a field strength of about half a gauss. If a microgauss device like a cell phone can induce cancer, it's about 4.5 billion years too late to do anything about it.
@Don't tell you're insurance company
Psst! I'm an insurance company. But shhhhh, don't tell; it's a secret.
Did nobody read this one...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/tv_licence/ ?
If someone can just sort out the efficiency of wireless power to your TV, then you won't have to pay a TV licence...
Are splashpower still around?
Back in the early years of the 21st century, an outfit at that time called Splashpower were trying to use inductive coupling for power delivery for small appliances.
Some readers may remember it being reported here on El Reg:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/19/battery_makers_to_try_splash/
The technology was so succesful that in May 2008 they went into administration (as do a great many new businesses), as again reported here on El Reg:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/06/splashpower_fulton/
See also the non-product WiTricity.
Quite how this doesn't warrant a mention in yet another article on the non-product which is inductive coupling, especially at non-trivial power levels over non-trivial distances, is left as an exercise to the reader.
See also:
Wireless Power Consortium:
http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/technology/index.html
"Short distance power transmission is usually based on the principle of magnetic induction. With this technology, power is transferred only if the receiver is close to the transmitter."
