I've mentioned Vernor Vinge before, and I'm going to do it again (seriously, if you want to read one of the best authors of speculative fiction and technological forecasting, this is the dude). Anyway. In his book, A Deepness in the Sky, he writes about machines that resonate at the right frequencies of background radiation (sort of) to harvest free energy.
At the CES this year, it appears that RCA of all companies may get there first:
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You know he's going to come out saying that he's a queer hatin' nazi one of these days just to ruin it for you, Fuge.
This might be huge, I say. I've been skeptical about this wireless power stuff due to its inherent inefficiency, but harvesting wasted energy from wifi signals? Gold.
If I may direct you to this XKCD infograph: if we can charge batteries from microwaves, how far can we be from charging our phones from their own "cancer-causing" radio waves?
My dayad and I were having an argument in regards to wireless power the other day. He's all, "Totally saw a television powered wirelessly. I'm all, "Dude, we're not there yet. They can do it, but in tiny, tiny amounts. Maybe a lightbulb in the near future."
I might be wrong!
# 2010: Haier Group debuts the world's first completely wireless LCD television at CES 2010 based on Prof. Marin Soljacic's research on wireless energy transfer and Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI).[26]
Wow, that's about as close to magic as I've ever seen. I sure hope there's some kind of weapons application here.
Incidentally, RCA is owned by Thomson SA, now trading on the NYSE for the bargain price of $1.53.
We all have to agree that Airnegy is a totally lame ass name, right?
I'm also a little confused because there isn't a hot babe wearing a tight T shirt telling me about how this works.
I quite enjoyed the cynical laugh from someone in this guy's audience when he says, at about 2:10, "It's a very 'green' product."
I don't like passive-aggressive cynical laughs, even if I agree with the sentiment. Figure if a man needs to say something he should stand up, remove his hat, pee, and be like, "No!" Or something overt like that.
I associate RCA with remote control boxes the size of cinder blocks. I hope this gets them someplace nice.
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