Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches NoteÂ
Wired News reported this morning that over 7 million have viewed the comedy clip Landlord by Will Ferrell!!!!!!!! See yesterday’s post for details.
Find A Problem & Solve It - Wireless Lighting
My wife’s father was a Purdue EE grad, circa 1934, and an avid ham radio operator. He had a bad habit of running extension cords and other various wiring stuff all over the place. Growing up with this, and being one of four daughters who had to attempt to clean up around wire-bundle messes, my wife abhors anything having to do with “wires.” 
She wants everything “electrical” to be completely out of view, like invisible. This raises many interesting “challenges;” it is impossible to power most modern electronic devices without access to plug-in 115 vac outlets in the home. Out of sight - not hardly.
This could change shortly. US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires. See here for reference. An idea a MIT team came up with is “resonance”, a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied as a possible solution. However, it is running only as a computer simulation at this time.
A Pennsylvania entrepreneur has developed technology that has possibilities in the lighting area, and in fact is powering LED-based mood lighting now. 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. (Complete story here.)
Powerset devices, while not powering megawatts of lighting, still have the capability of fulfilling many home lighting needs. And guess what? LEDs require much less power for a given level of lumen (how bright the light is) output than just about any other source of home lighting - green is good.
So how do you as a budding entrepreneur tap into this market? Where is this technology headed? Can it be adapted (easily) to other applications? Will this become a disruptive technology? What firms and/or industries should be look over Powercast’s shoulder? Take a gander at the video below:
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Many aspects of this article are puzzling. High-tech solutions don’t answer many problems.
Today, wives don’t have to clean around lighting wire bundles in modern homes. I suspect that husbands don’t either. Neither does my cleaning lady. The wiring for lighting is behind the wall surfaces and a jack is near each lamp.
The picture partially illustrates the common power distribution for a home computer. What it doesn’t depict are most of the bricks (individual D.C. power supplies) that power the computer, printer, external hard drive, external disk recorders, scanner, router, modem, fax, etc. The multi-brick mess can be eradicated with one D.C. power supply, equipped with standard jacks that will supply the appropriate voltage and polarity to all the stuff on the desk. Will the computer and peripheral manufacturers provide D.C. cables with standard plugs and without bricks? Yes, if they can be convinced that they won’t be bringing less profit to their bottom lines. Convinced by whom? the entrepreneur. And the D.C. wires still have to be hidden beneath the desk or behind the wall or false wall.
But if you are really interested in wireless power transmission, I recommend that you read up on Nicola Tesla; especially his notes. Remember that Tesla trumped Edison and others of his time in all aspects of power distribution. But, remember also that Tesla lived in an era when electromagnetic interference was not a concern. How does one preclude the potential harm of power transmission without cables or waveguides? This is the crux of this problem for wireless power distribution in the home or office. Remember that the home and office use incandescent light bulbs requiring much energy. Today’s alternatives to the incandescent bulb don’t work with dimmers, and fail much earlier than their advertised lifetimes. I can think of more suitable places for wireless power transmission technology. Invest your energies and assets there.
See Saturday, 4/21/07 post for an even more complicated way of dealing with wires, or lack thereof. Hank