Neil Hughes
The concept was detailed this week in a new patent application discovered by AppleInsider entitled "Active Electronic Media Packaging." It describes an active packaging system that would supply power and data to devices, allowing them to display content and show off features to customers while on display in a store.
The proposed invention aims to replace the typical labels and other advertising that is found on the outside of product packaging. Instead, Apple's method would let the product sell itself.
"Although typical packaging for an electronic media device may be designed to adequately protect the device from shock or damage, the packaging is extremely limited in other respects," the filing reads. "For example, the ability to fully view or interact with the electronic media device while still inside the packaging is severely limited in most packaging designs. Although unobtrusive packaging designs have been developed, these designs typically do not allow electronic media devices to be interacted with while inside the packaging."
In addition, most packages do not include some sort of external power source to make sure the device can be operational for the user to see and use.
Physically connecting a power supply to each package in a store could be a difficult task, and so one of Apple's proposed solutions is to use an RF power transmitter. The packaging itself could act as a receiver, and would provide power to a device like an iPhone or iPad.
The use of packaging to receive the wireless power would also negate the need for the device itself to be able to recharge wirelessly. This would avoid the need to increase the size of the device to add such technology.
The new packaging method with an external power supply would also allow Apple to conduct functionality like firmware or software upgrades directly in the store, while the product is still sealed.
The application, made public this week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was first filed in December of 2011. It is credited to Michael Rosenblatt, a former new technologies manager at Apple, where his team filed 42 patent applications related to the iPhone and iPod, and saw 70 percent of their innovations adopted into products over a two-year span.
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Charles Martin
Wesley Hilliard
Oliver Haslam
Marko Zivkovic
Amber Neely
38 Comments
I predicted on AI years ago Apple would get into 'Wi-Tricity' one day ... this is the beginning ...
One day all Apple devices will charge wirelessly when within range of some central device, maybe the Airport Extreme?
I remember an article very much like this one a few years ago. Or perhaps that was the same idea without the wireless part? BTW how the heck does wireless electricity work? Apparently Arthur C. Clarke's dictum that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" holds true again.
It's a horrible idea.
We waste far too much energy in this country already. I don't care if your concern is global warming, balance of trade, or physical security of our troops in oil-producing regions, reducing our energy usage (and especially getting rid of pure wasted energy) is a good thing.
This type of charging is inefficient and wastes a great deal of energy. I'm not going to do it again, but a while back, I estimated that if all Apple portable products were switched to wireless charging, it would waste enough energy to require a brand new, full scale (Gigawatt level) power plant.
given the fact that most apple items fly off the shelf daily I don't see an issue with this, If you had a product like the Zune or BB Playbook then yes this would be a waste,
I remember an article very much like this one a few years ago. Or perhaps that was the same idea without the wireless part? BTW how the heck does wireless electricity work? Apparently Arthur C. Clarke's dictum that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" holds true again.
Not at all. It's not even that advanced of a technology.
Think of a transformer. You have one AC coil wrapped around a metal core. This converts the electricity into magnetism. Now, you wrap another coil around the metal core. Magnetism is converted back to electricity and you get a current in the second coil. The same thing works without the metal core, albeit at lower efficiency.
Or, think of it this way. You have radio stations all over the place. They are emitting radio waves into the air from their antenna. That is, an electric current is fed to the antenna and radiation is emitted. Your antenna receives the radio waves and converts them to electrical currents (although very weak ones).
In fact, there's a big scam on some of the energy efficiency forums. Nikolai Tesla theorized that one could build a receiver which would convert the earth's magnetic fields to electricity. This does, in fact, work. The problem is that it generates only a few mW of power and is not practical. Even with all the different radio signals around us, there's just not enough energy to do anything useful, but you still see people trying to sell you a Tesla generator to power your house. The system being proposed here is different because it has its own magnetic field generator and receiver in close proximity.
There's absolutely nothing difficult or complicated about the process. It's just not very efficient.