Lux Maharaj
Well-Known Member
http://info.gsm.org/content/MI_Newsletter_Mar09?elq=2E446535895A44A1A1E1A71F37864810#interest
Taking the last wire
out of wireless
Mobile phone technology may have made great advances in recent years but they still need to be plugged in regularly to keep going. Matt Ablott reports on a new industry push to allow electronic devices such as mobiles to be charged without the need for traditional plugs and wires.
One of the most hotly-anticipated mobile phone launches this year is the Palm Pre, seen as the Sunnyvale, California-based smartphone vendor's answer to Apple's iconic iPhone 3G. However, while the iPhone will go down in history as the device that pioneered touch screen functionality, the Palm Pre may have carved out a historical niche of its own: it is the first mobile that can be charged without using a traditional phone charger.
Palm has achieved this by shipping the device with an accessory it calls the 'Touchstone' charging dock. When combined with a special back cover for the phone (which will be sold separately), the device can be placed on the pad and charged while being held in the correct position by magnets. The device can then be charged in roughly the same amount of time it would take with a standard wall charger.
According to Mark Eastwood, senior product manager at Palm, the Touchstone enables a number of usage scenarios for the end-user, including, for example, the ability to charge the battery while simultaneously watching a movie on the device (usually a battery-draining pursuit). Eastwood adds that Palm has also built in numerous software features relating to the Touchstone, such as automatically answering calls if the device is lifted off the charging pad, or switching to speaker mode if the device is placed on the pad during an active call.
Palm's Touchstone is the first high-profile mobile product to use a technology known as electromagnetic inductive coupling, which can enable wireless energy transfer over short distances by passing voltage between a transmitter and a receiver. The technology is not new — it has been around in one form or another for over 100 years — nor is it exclusive to the mobile industry. It is already widely used to wirelessly charge devices such as electric toothbrushes, and has the potential to power everything from digital cameras to power tools.
However, like many promising technologies before it, wireless charging has stalled because of a lack of standardization, which has often made manufacturers of consumer electronic goods reluctant to adopt the technology. The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) was formed late last year with the aim of defining a common standard for the nascent wireless charging industry that will allow it to avoid the damaging format wars suffered by technologies in other sectors, such as Blue-ray/HD-DVD. The WPC's nine members to date include Convenient Power, Fulton Innovation, Logitech, National Semiconductor, Olympus Imaging, Philips Electronics, Sanyo, Shenzhen Sang Fei and Texas Instruments.
As well as defining the technical specifications of the new standard, the Consortium will also establish a logo that will be featured on devices and charging equipment to show that they are compatible with the new standard (and each other). Different brands and different devices can then recharge using the same battery and charging station. According to Menno Treffers, senior director of standardization at Philips and chairman of the WPC, the first products featuring this logo should launch in 2010.
Treffers says that the first version of the standard will focus on a low-power version of the technology — up to 5 watt — that will be suitable for charging mobile phones, while a second release will target netbooks and laptops.
Some device manufacturers — as Palm has demonstrated with Pre —are rolling out proprietary solutions ahead of the standard. 'OEMs want to use this technology to differentiate their products," explains Masoud Beheshti, director of battery charge management at Texas Instruments (TI), which claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of power management chips. Beheshti says TI is already working closely with its OEM customers in the mobile handset space to develop components that enable wireless charging.
The chipmaker is also working with wireless charging pioneer Fulton to develop components based on Fulton's 'eCoupled' inductive wireless power technology for use by handset vendors and others. "We are at a point where a lot of these technologies are coming together to make a viable commercial solution," says Beheshti. "We are seeing very strong demand from handset makers and accessories such as Bluetouch headsets." The alliance is aiming to reduce the cost and size of components in order to drive adoption by manufacturers.
Fulton's Dave Baarman, director of advanced technologies at the Michigan-based firm, believes that wireless charging will play an increasingly important role in the mobile industry as devices become more sophisticated. "People want to use their devices on a more frequent basis but it isn't always convenient [to charge them up]," he says. "As network usage goes up, this is the perfect solution to that problem."
He adds that even the initial low-power version of the standard will allow lots of different types of devices — including mobiles, mp3 players and Bluetooth headsets - to use the same wireless charging equipment. But the industry's ultimate aim, Baarman says, is to create a ubiquitous wireless charging solution that can be rolled out everywhere: in the home, in the office, in cars, and on public transport. "We believe this technology can potentially change how these products are designed based on having ubiquitous charging solutions."
If the project is a success, the era of every new electronic device coming complete with a power lead could potentially come to an end.
Matt Ablott is Deputy Editor of Mobile Business Briefing, a free global daily enewsletter with over 22,000 registered subscribers. Sign up to receive the GSMA newsletter.
Taking the last wire
out of wireless
Mobile phone technology may have made great advances in recent years but they still need to be plugged in regularly to keep going. Matt Ablott reports on a new industry push to allow electronic devices such as mobiles to be charged without the need for traditional plugs and wires.
One of the most hotly-anticipated mobile phone launches this year is the Palm Pre, seen as the Sunnyvale, California-based smartphone vendor's answer to Apple's iconic iPhone 3G. However, while the iPhone will go down in history as the device that pioneered touch screen functionality, the Palm Pre may have carved out a historical niche of its own: it is the first mobile that can be charged without using a traditional phone charger.
Palm has achieved this by shipping the device with an accessory it calls the 'Touchstone' charging dock. When combined with a special back cover for the phone (which will be sold separately), the device can be placed on the pad and charged while being held in the correct position by magnets. The device can then be charged in roughly the same amount of time it would take with a standard wall charger.
According to Mark Eastwood, senior product manager at Palm, the Touchstone enables a number of usage scenarios for the end-user, including, for example, the ability to charge the battery while simultaneously watching a movie on the device (usually a battery-draining pursuit). Eastwood adds that Palm has also built in numerous software features relating to the Touchstone, such as automatically answering calls if the device is lifted off the charging pad, or switching to speaker mode if the device is placed on the pad during an active call.
Palm's Touchstone is the first high-profile mobile product to use a technology known as electromagnetic inductive coupling, which can enable wireless energy transfer over short distances by passing voltage between a transmitter and a receiver. The technology is not new — it has been around in one form or another for over 100 years — nor is it exclusive to the mobile industry. It is already widely used to wirelessly charge devices such as electric toothbrushes, and has the potential to power everything from digital cameras to power tools.
However, like many promising technologies before it, wireless charging has stalled because of a lack of standardization, which has often made manufacturers of consumer electronic goods reluctant to adopt the technology. The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) was formed late last year with the aim of defining a common standard for the nascent wireless charging industry that will allow it to avoid the damaging format wars suffered by technologies in other sectors, such as Blue-ray/HD-DVD. The WPC's nine members to date include Convenient Power, Fulton Innovation, Logitech, National Semiconductor, Olympus Imaging, Philips Electronics, Sanyo, Shenzhen Sang Fei and Texas Instruments.
As well as defining the technical specifications of the new standard, the Consortium will also establish a logo that will be featured on devices and charging equipment to show that they are compatible with the new standard (and each other). Different brands and different devices can then recharge using the same battery and charging station. According to Menno Treffers, senior director of standardization at Philips and chairman of the WPC, the first products featuring this logo should launch in 2010.
Treffers says that the first version of the standard will focus on a low-power version of the technology — up to 5 watt — that will be suitable for charging mobile phones, while a second release will target netbooks and laptops.
Some device manufacturers — as Palm has demonstrated with Pre —are rolling out proprietary solutions ahead of the standard. 'OEMs want to use this technology to differentiate their products," explains Masoud Beheshti, director of battery charge management at Texas Instruments (TI), which claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of power management chips. Beheshti says TI is already working closely with its OEM customers in the mobile handset space to develop components that enable wireless charging.
The chipmaker is also working with wireless charging pioneer Fulton to develop components based on Fulton's 'eCoupled' inductive wireless power technology for use by handset vendors and others. "We are at a point where a lot of these technologies are coming together to make a viable commercial solution," says Beheshti. "We are seeing very strong demand from handset makers and accessories such as Bluetouch headsets." The alliance is aiming to reduce the cost and size of components in order to drive adoption by manufacturers.
Fulton's Dave Baarman, director of advanced technologies at the Michigan-based firm, believes that wireless charging will play an increasingly important role in the mobile industry as devices become more sophisticated. "People want to use their devices on a more frequent basis but it isn't always convenient [to charge them up]," he says. "As network usage goes up, this is the perfect solution to that problem."
He adds that even the initial low-power version of the standard will allow lots of different types of devices — including mobiles, mp3 players and Bluetooth headsets - to use the same wireless charging equipment. But the industry's ultimate aim, Baarman says, is to create a ubiquitous wireless charging solution that can be rolled out everywhere: in the home, in the office, in cars, and on public transport. "We believe this technology can potentially change how these products are designed based on having ubiquitous charging solutions."
If the project is a success, the era of every new electronic device coming complete with a power lead could potentially come to an end.
Matt Ablott is Deputy Editor of Mobile Business Briefing, a free global daily enewsletter with over 22,000 registered subscribers. Sign up to receive the GSMA newsletter.