WiTricity - an old story

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Date Line June 7, 2007

Todays News an old story:

WiTricity, as it is called, exploits simple physics and could be adapted to charge other devices such as laptops.

"There is nothing in this that would have prevented them inventing this 10 or even 20 years ago," commented Professor Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London who has seen the experiments.

"But I think there is an issue of time. In the last few years we have seen an exponential growth of mobile devices that need power. The power cable is the last wire to be cut in a wireless connection."

Professor Moti Segev of the Israel Institute of Technology described the work as "truly pioneering".

That is the story, and the tale of yesterday; a tale of forty-five years ago; maybe a touch more; but certainly not more than fifty years.

I was a student in High School.

OK, it was Brooklyn Technical High School and everyone there was special, we had to take a test, and only the top thousand made it in. That is the top thousand of the roughly two million baby-boomers in New York.

I would guess at the test and acceptance rate; but of two hundred students maybe twenty would risk taking the test; of them, maybe three would get an acceptance, or a provisional acceptance; so, shall we guess, maybe, ten percent of ten percent; or the top one percent.

I think my daughter beat those odds when, at 16, she was accepted at Harvard on an expense paid basis.

OK, enough boasting within a boast. The point of this was, and is, that I had designed such a system based on radio waves. The idea that one could convert the power received by a razorblade receiver; could filter it, with a diode bridge, to produce DC current power for a low energy load.

Of course the idea didn’t go anywhere. At the time the loads were vacuum tubes and transistors were the size of three stacked dimes; and had three “thick” wires.

Compare that to millions of transistors on a quarter; or whatever the comparable size is as of yesterday.

Compare that to DNA, or bio-computers, and the hair thick circuits of machines being made, or tested, today.

Razorblade radios were used in World War II; every kid knew how to make one. Now we have the breakthrough of a lightbulb over two meters. When will some idiot, with a minuscule knowledge of radio transmission history, realize that multiple small computers can be constantly on using the WiFi carrier frequency as power?

When will someone realize that the only larger power source needed is to power the user interface? When will they realize that existing systems can be “always on” wherever Wireless is provided? When will we see computers storing, processing, and replying, through use of what is now deemed wasted heat from user interfaces?

Green machines. As they said at the hog slaughter house, “we use everything but the oink; everything but the squeal; and are working on a commercial use for that.
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OK, for the techies out there. This is the “Theory” for what you will construct (my idea, send a percentage check): Rather than filter static, the ambient static of civilization, or appropriate portions, or frequencies, thereof, are received by pure circuits designed to be batteries. Each circuit becomes a cell, and each cell boosts the power to the levels needed for an application. Thus, even the user interfaces could be powered by their own dedicated power converter and storage circuit. (Why dedicated & storage? So power would be gathered while system is off and charge the storage medium so as to amplify the available power when the user interfaces are operating.)

The circuit design should be relatively simple. We are looking for a DC output, and not concerned with the actual specifics. Once there has been an optimal output level for ambient power determined, it is a minor design element to adjust power to the etched circuit needs.

So, be nice, after you have done the grunt work; as I have already done the brainwork, just have the bookkeeping department issue a modest, but meaningful, residual royalty check to me or my heirs.
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