http://www.expressnews.com/business/technology/article/Firm-leads-the-charge-for-cars-to-pull-the-plug-6310411.php Firm leads the charge for cars to pull the plug By David R. Baker, Houston Chronicle June 5, 2015
[images / WiTricity http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/36/72/74/8105760/7/920x920.jpg Honda uses WiTricity’s wireless charging technology with a Fit EV at the company’s demonstration “Smart Home” in Saitama, Japan http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/36/72/74/8105761/7/1024x1024.jpg WiTricity’s technology uses an oscillating magnetic field to recharge the batteries of electric cars or plug-in hybrids http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/36/72/74/8105762/7/1024x1024.jpg WiTricity's technology means no plugging is required to recharge electric and hybrid cars http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/36/72/74/8105763/7/1024x1024.jpg WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen argues that wireless recharging soon will become the norm, for personal electronics, medical devices, and yes, cars ] Someday soon, plug-in cars may no longer need plugging in. Electric cars and plug-in hybrids won’t recharge their batteries through a bulky cord. Instead, a small pad placed on the garage floor — or maybe embedded in it — will transmit energy to a receiver on the car’s undercarriage, no wires needed. Just drive over the pad, park and forget about it. That’s the vision of WiTricity, a Boston-area startup backed by Toyota and Intel. WiTricity’s technology resembles the cordless charging pads already available for smartphones and tablets, but it can transmit more power over greater distance. Spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007, WiTricity isn’t the only company chasing this particular vision, with Qualcomm, Bosch and Evatran rolling out their own versions. WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen argues that wireless recharging soon will become the norm, for personal electronics, medical devices, and yes, cars. The power cord’s days may be numbered. “I’ll have it in my kitchen counter, my bedside table, probably my coffee table,” Gruzen said. “And throughout my day, I’ll be casually topping off my devices with this quick ‘energy snacking.’ The same thing will happen in the automotive space, because when you park, it’ll just charge, and you won’t be thinking about it.” Toyota was an early investor in the company, which has raised $45 million to date. The world’s largest automaker plans to offer WiTricity’s wireless charging technology as an option on its plug-in hybrid Prius, Gruzen said. A Toyota spokeswoman declined to confirm any specific plans to outfit the Prius with WiTricity’s gear. But the automaker announced a licensing agreement with WiTricity in 2013 and has field-tested the equipment. Honda uses WiTricity to recharge a Fit EV at one of the auto company’s showcase “smart homes” near Tokyo. And several of the world’s largest auto-industry suppliers, including Delphi Corp. and IHI Corp., have licensed WiTricity’s technology. Granted, consumers still are getting used to electric cars, with sales growing slowly at a time of low gasoline prices. Wireless charging would add another layer of novelty to a type of car that many Americans consider untested. But the concept’s simplicity could win converts. A study last year by the Navigant Research consulting firm concluded that annual sales of wireless electric car charging stations could reach nearly 302,000 by 2022. “Although some in the industry remain unconvinced that wireless charging will ever be more than a small niche market, it’s clear that major automakers have concluded that this technology could be a differentiator in a crowded EV market,” Richard Martin, Navigant’s editorial director, said at the time. “Features once considered luxury items, such as power windows and automatic garage door openers, tend to spread, over time, across all vehicle segments — and that is likely to apply to wireless charging, as well.” WiTricity’s technology uses a wire coil in its pad to create an oscillating magnetic field. That field generates an electric current in a receiving coil that either sits on the undercarriage of a car or is built into a phone or other portable device. “It’s like the opera singer hitting a note and shattering a glass,” Gruzen said. “When you think about it, she’s moving energy over distance.” The last generation of electric car — General Motors’ EV1 — used something similar, with a recharging “paddle” that had to be inserted into a slot between the headlights. But WiTricity doesn’t need such close, precise placement between the energy transmitter and receiver. Just parking over the transmitter will do. While the car is elsewhere, the transmitter remains off. Magnetic fields travel through materials, so Gruzen argues the technology could be better suited to public EV charging than the current crop of plug-in chargers. WiTricity’s transmitting coil can still function if it’s covered in concrete — safe from weather, vandalism and copper thieves. Gruzen says the switch to wireless recharging, for many different devices, will follow roughly the same path as the adoption of cordless phones — once a novelty, now ubiquitous. “I grew up when phones had cords,” he said. “I still to this day think of it as a cordless phone. But to my kids, it’s just a phone. They’ve never known phones with cords. So when we’re talking about wireless charging, I think in five years, it’ll just be charging. It’ll just be what you do.” [© expressnews.com] [related] http://www.greenoptimistic.com/powifi-wireless-power/ PoWiFi Powers Devices Wirelessly, Eliminates Batteries Mila Luleva June 5, 2015 [image / (c) Washington University http://www.greenoptimistic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/PoWiFi-wirless-power-university-of-washington-1-537x302.jpg video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX9cbxLSOkE Ambient Backscatter uwsensor Aug 13, 2013 Ambient Backscatter transforms existing wireless signals into both a source of power and a communication medium. It enables two battery-free devices to communicate by backscattering existing wireless signals. Backscatter communication is orders of magnitude more power-efficient than traditional radio ] PoWiFi is a system that allows simultaneous wireless transfer of power and data to electronic devices using existing WiFi infrastructure, giving a glimpse of hope that batteries might soon be made redundant. Different technologies that allow wireless charging have been circulating the news for quite some time now, with gadgets and mats providing that ever-so-needed power without the need of using a cable and physically plugging the electronic device. However, the most that these mats do is to spare you the need to carry a charger, and to feel like a criminal every time you secretly plug your device in the socket next to your coffee table. Now, of course this should not sound like criticism, on the contrary, it is great to see that places like Starbucks for example, are all up for new slightly geeky and super cool techs that ultimately attract more customers. But with these techs in place, they do not allow you to walk around, in fact, you will still have to go to the place, where the wireless powering technology is available, and spend some time there before you can get going again. Similarly, wireless charging technology is becoming increasingly available for EV battrey charging, as it was demonstrated by Busbaar V3 charging station for buses, but again the vehicle has to be at the right spot, even if it does not require plug in. Nikola Tesla was the first to start dreaming of getting rid of wires, and unfortunately he could not live long enough to see his dreams realized. However, such a brilliant idea is not something that has to be disregarded as science fiction and just left untouched. Many research teams have been searching for ways to make this happen. The wireless charging spots are just the beginning, but the ultimate goal is to be able to charge devices everywhere, at any point, or why not even get rid of batteries all together? A team of researchers from University of Washington decided to build on this idea and conducted an experiment during which they were able to power devices wirelessly, using only available infrastructure. The technology that they used is called PoWiFi, and it uses house routers to send RF signals, which are then received by the antenna of the electronic device. A rectifier converts the signal into DC power, while a converter boosts the voltage. Vamsi Talla, a PhD candidate and lead researcher on the project, together with his team, installed the system in six test homes, where the residents were advised to keep using their wireless networks as always. Only one of the users reported problems with internet connection after the installation of PoWiFi, but all in all, the system allowed wireless transmission of both power and data simultaneously using RF signal. This is the first time anyone has managed to get that far. Previous technologies of this kind by researchers at MIT and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology were able to transmit power at a distance of 2 and 5 meters. These, however, were not able to multitask like PoWiFi, and most definitely did not imply that we might not need batteries in the near future. 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