Funkstrom at last ?!
Breaking my own rules I have to blog about a tech that has been the running joke on any tech enthusiasm geeks circle (around here at least). The so cool funky named "funkstrom" in german - or much more boring "wireless power" - is seeing the day of light. No, it does not seem to be a aprils fool joke. The - evil american kapitalistic private secret not for investing - company called powercast has been making such a system quietly over the last four years (they don´t even have a website it seems?).
It harnesses something that serbian born Nikola Tesla already proofed functional around 1900 and that I build when east germany was still east germany and every self made electronic device was highly valued. The Funkstrom device (because the english word wireless seems so boring and is filled with pre-filled ideas of wireless internet the company will probably go with their own name - powercast - how lame) will harness Radio Frequency waves mainly from a device plugged into an electrical outlet. These waves are not very valuable further away then a meter degrading one watt of power on the transmitter to about 0.1 watt on the receiver. However the receiver device is also capable of harnessing other RF waves in the room - like TV, Radio, WirelessInternet, Mobile&Cordless Phones or your hacked up microwave that you leave open during the day, bringing me back into that time loop hole when I made that radio that worked without any power whatsoever just harnessing the RF waves to power the headphones (so quietly that you had to be in an absolute quite room to hear anything). Now as a treehugger I might cry foul as every other treehugger will because such a device - on first look - is broadcasting more radiation into our slowly cooking brains who will then mutate to become a giant river monster. Fear not beloved friend of nature and psychic ascendents because the power used by the transmitter will be one watt on initial introduction - thats one watt somewhere in a wall plug. Compare this to the half watt that you are holding right onto your brain when making a cellphone call plus the quarter watt from your wireless transmission that goes straight through you when you sit in front of a shiny laptop and add another half watt from the cordless phones and probably at least another of a quarter of watts through TV and radio transmission in all kind of frequencies and another 1000 watt from your open door microwave and you see a picture forming that says "as long as it is really just one watt with a very radial field of distribution that is quite alright".
With that out of the way most people might say "oh its only receiving .1 watt, how is that useful to anything?" Well the speaker for the company talks about "trickle charging" meaning a lot of devices just laying on the desk anyway will charge constantly over a long period of time - which is good for battery life because what actually destroys recharge batteries (LiIon) - as I learned - is the chemical destroying fast charge of todays devices not the multitude of charging.
That 0.1 watt can also power keyboards, mice, headsets and other small gear that contribute to the desktop cable mess.
Still not all is good and I have to be the fearless treehugger again in an age facing global warming made by mankind because you loose 90% of direct power efficiency with such a device - of course that does not take into account the possibility to harness otherwise lost energy waves flying around anyways.
Now if you want more you can listen to a very indepth interview with the company speaker on the mobile computing authority podcast.
I for one can´t wait for the day that we can say goodbye to each and all cables forever as long as its not used to wirelessly light up even more poor christmas trees.
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Funkstrom, Future is Near