Hey, cool! The blind might have use for street lamps after all! Kim -----Original Message----- From: real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Fettgather Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 8:49 PM To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [real-eyes] Re: Powercast If the power is out, then you can't plug the transmitter into a wall socket, so you are out of luck. Could I stand under a street lamp and charge my phone? ----- Original Message ----- From: "& Ruthie" <chaosynchronous@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 8:04 PM Subject: [real-eyes] Re: Powercast How about the power's out and you need to charge your cel battery...no power, no charge...unless you have one of these. Same with the laptop, a lamp, your refridgerator...oh wait, did it say it converts it to AC power or DC? lol. Ruthie & When it rains, why don't sheep shrink? MSN Messenger ID: ruthie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx AOL and Yahoo Messenger ID: chaosynchronous ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Morrow" <morrowmediakc@xxxxxxxxx> To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 7:58 PM Subject: [real-eyes] Re: Powercast > Okay--so let me get this straight. The only difference is that you don't > have to physically plug in your cell phone. It's not like you have a > completely battery free phone. So where is the great innovation here???? > > Kim > > > -----Original Message----- > From: real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] > On Behalf Of & Ruthie > Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 5:58 PM > To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [real-eyes] Powercast > > <URL: > http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/04/01/840334 > 9/index.htm?postversion=2007033007 > CNNmoney > Powered by > Death of the cell phone charger > A Pennsylvania entrepreneur has developed technology that gives you > all the battery juice you need directly from the air. Business 2.0 > reports. > Business 2.0 Magazine > By Melanie Haiken, Business 2.0 Magazine > March 30 2007: 7:08 AM EDT > (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- How much money could you make from a > technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called > Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked > agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its > first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch > their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air. > It may sound futuristic, but 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. > Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your > desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity. How big can > it get? "The sky's the limit," says John Shearer, Powercast's > founder and CEO. He estimates shipping "many millions of units" by > the end of 2008. > For years, electricity experts said this kind of thing couldn't be > done. "If you had asked me seven months ago if this was possible, I > would have said, 'Are you dreaming? Have you been smoking > something?'" says Govi Rao, vice president and general manager of > solid-state lighting at Philips (Charts). "But to see it work is > just amazing. It could revolutionize what we know about power." > So impressed was Rao after witnessing Powercast's demo last summer > that he walked away jotting down a list of the industries to which > the technology could immediately be applied: lighting, peripherals, > all kinds of handheld electronics. Philips partnered with Powercast > last July, and their first joint product, a wirelessly powered LED > light stick, will hit the market this year. Computer peripherals, > such as a wireless keyboard and mouse, will follow in 2008. > Broadcasting power through the air isn't a new idea. Researchers > have experimented with capturing the radiation in radio frequency at > high power but had difficulty capturing it at consumer-friendly low > power. "You'd have energy bouncing off the walls and arriving in a > wide range of voltages," says Zoya Popovic, an electrical > engineering professor at the University of Colorado who works on > wireless electricity projects for the U.S. military. > That's where Shearer came in. A former physicist based in > Pittsburgh, he and his team spent four years poring over wireless > electricity research in a lab hidden behind his family's coffee > house. He figured much of the energy bouncing off walls could be > captured. All you had to do was build a receiver that could act like > a radio tuned to many frequencies at once. > "I realized we wanted to grab that static and harness it," Shearer > says. "It's all energy." > So the Powercast team set about creating and patenting that > receiver. Its tiny but hyperefficient receiving circuits can adjust > to variations in load and field strength while maintaining a > constant DC voltage. Thanks to the fact that it transmits only safe > low wattages, the Powercast system quickly won FCC approval--and $10 > million from private investors. > Powercast says it has signed nondisclosure agreements to develop > products with more than 100 companies, including major manufacturers > of cell phones, MP3 players, automotive parts, temperature sensors, > hearing aids, and medical implants. > The last of those alone could be a multibillion-dollar market: > Pacemakers, defibrillators, and the like require surgery to replace > dead batteries. But with a built-in Powercast receiver, those > batteries could last a lifetime. > "Everyone's looking to cut that last cord," says Alex Slawsby, a > consultant at Innosight who specializes in disruptive innovation. > "Think of the billion cell phones sold last year. If you could get > Powercast into a small percentage of the high-end models, those > would be huge numbers." > Could Powercast's technology also work for larger devices? Perhaps, > but not quite yet. Laptop computers, for example, use more than 10 > times the wattage of Powercast transmissions. > But industry trends are on Shearer's side: Thanks to less > energy-hungry LCD screens and processors, PC power consumption is > slowly diminishing. Within five years, Shearer says, laptops will be > down to single-digit wattage--making his revenue potential even more > electrifying. > > > Ruthie & > > Programming just with goto's is like swatting flies with a sledgehammer. > > MSN Messenger ID: ruthie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > AOL and Yahoo Messenger ID: chaosynchronous > > > To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, > go > to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes > > > To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, > go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes > > To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes