Emerging Technology on The Use of Laser to Wirelessly Charge a Smartphone Safely Across the Room .

Laser pointers, source: wikimedia commons

Technology is fast growing and becoming interesting. Just recently, the University of Washington Engineers developed a wireless laser to charge a smartphone
For the first time in history, University of Washington Engineers developed a secured method of charging a smartphone wirelessly. It is not gainsaying that mobile devices such as smartphone and tablet allow us to access information and communicate with one another wirelessly. But then we always plug in our chargers into the electrical outlet to charge them. It is no doubt that soonest, we will start charging our phones wirelessly. Let's take a look at how this works.

How it Works

Image source : pixabay

A tiny power cell was placed on the smartphone to charge the smartphone with the power from the laser, a metal and flat plate heatsink was also designed to disperse excessive heat from the laser, a reflector based mechanism that turns off the laser before a person walks in the path of the charging beam was also designed. This is to ensure safety of wireless laser charging system.

The charging beam is originally created by a laser emitter which is setup to produce a focused beam in the infrared spectrum.
The safety device that puts off the charging beam is based on low powered, harmless laser “guard beams,” which are emitted by another laser source co-located with the charging laser-beam and physically “surround” the charging beam.

The custom 3-D printed “retroreflectors” placed around the power cell on the smartphone reflect the guard beams back to photodiodes on the laser emitter. The guard beams deliver no charge to the phone themselves, but their reflection from the smartphone back to the emitter allows them to serve as a “sensor” for when a person will move in the path of the guard beam.

A narrow beam can deliver a steady 2W of power to 15 square-inch area from a distance of up to 4.3 meters, or about 14 feet. But the emitter can be modified to expand the charging beam’s radius to an area of up to 100 square centimeters from a distance of 12 meters, or nearly 40 feet. This extension means that the emitter could be aimed at a wider charging surface, such as a counter or tabletop, and charge a smartphone placed anywhere on that surface.

Conclusion

The good aspect of this laser charging system is that it can charge a smartphone as quickly as a standard USB charger and it is safe. The safety features in the charging system will give it the robust safety standard needed for both commercial and private usage.
In no due time smartphones and tablets will be charged wirelessly.

Follow this link to read more

Reference

1. University of Washington
2. Wikipedia -emitter
3. Technology
4. smartphone
5. laser

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