“Our
technology proved the possibility of a new remote power delivery mechanism that
has never been tried at such a long distance. Although the long-range wireless
power transfer is still in an early stage of commercialization and quite costly
to implement, we believe that this is the right direction for electric power to
be supplied in the future. Just like we see Wi-Fi zones everywhere today, we
will eventually have many Wi-Power zones at such places as restaurants and
streets that provide electric power wirelessly to electronic devices. We will
use all the devices anywhere without tangled wires attached and anytime without
worrying about charging their batteries.”
Prof. Chun T. Rim of
the Nuclear and Quantum Engineering department at KAIST in a press release
explaining DCRS
Wireless
Power Transfer has takes a big leap forward with the development of DCRS
(Dipole Coil Resonant System) by the team at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology)!
DCRS
allows for the wireless charging of smartphones and Laptops as far away as 5
meters as stated in “WIRELESS
CHARGING IS COMING: RESEARCHERS JUICE UP 40 SMARTPHONES FROM 5 METERS AWAY”,
published April 19, 2014 By Christian Brazil Bautista, DigitalTrends and “Wireless
charger can power 40 mobile phones at once from 15 feet away”, published
APR. 21, 2014 - 7:52 AM PDT by Signe Brewster, Gigaom.
If
you remember, these are the same dudes that developed the JEROS (Jellyfish
Elimination Robotic Swarm Robots) Project to exterminate Jellyfish around
Nuclear Reactors as detailed in my blog article
entitled “Urban
Robotics Lab at KAIST develops the JEROS to Exterminate, Exterminate Jellyfish
- JEROS are the Daleks of Dr. Who to keep Nuclear Reactors Safe in 2014”.
The
KAIST Team, led by Prof. Chun T. Rim of the Nuclear and Quantum Engineering
department, had basically improved on the MIT (Massechussets Institute of
Technology) WiTricity Design for Wireless Power Transfer as described in “MIT crafts
wireless electricity”, published June 18, 2007 9:14 PM PDT by Michael
Kanellos, CNET News and “MIT's
new WiTricity could eliminate power cords, and even batteries”, published
June 15, 2007, 2:29 AM PST By Jason Hiner, TechRepublic.
MIT's
design can only work for a distance of 2 meters and can only power a Laptop.
KAIST
has not only improved on the distance but also the bulkiness of the design
which consists of four coils:
1.
Input
2.
Transmission
3.
Reception
4.
Load
The
total length of the device is 3 meters, making it smaller and a lot less
complex than the MIT Design. It can also power more stuff. More stuff here is
basically a large LED TV and three 40-watt fans, roughly 500 Watts, the typical
power Requirement in a house in the night-time.
If
this development becomes commercialized, just as it’s possible to have lighting
fixtures that can acts as Wi-Fi and even Li-Fi Hotspots as described in my blog article
entitled “LG
Electronics Internet Controlled LED Light Bulb - Li-Fi’s Standardization of
Alexander Graham Bell’s First Invention powered by Powerline AV 500 and Homeplug
AV”, we may also have Wi-Power Lighting Fixtures as well, as per the vision
of Prof. Chun T. Rim.
How DCRS works - KAIST
moves from killing Jellyfish to Wireless Power
So
how does DCRS work?
This
as the Magnetic Field of the Helium-cooled Magnet is so strong that it can
literally rip it off you, causing serious bodily Harm. Despite this, MRI and
their more Research oriented cousins NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) are
useful for imaging even bacteria, once you’ve rapidly frozen them in place of
course as described in my blog article entitled
“University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University develope Nanometer
NMR - MRI's Research Cousin used for imaging Viruses and Bacteria in the
Nanometer Twilight Zone”.
What
you may not know, however, is the fact that Magnetic Field effect on you is
also in part due to its operating frequency. Albeit Magnetic Field Strength is
measured in Teslas, with 1 Tesla being equivalent to 10,000 (or 104) G (gauss),
the rate at which a Magnetic Field Pulses on or off i.e. it's frequency, can
determine how strong it actually feels.
It's
a lot like Electro Magnetic Radiation i.e. Radio Waves and Light; the higher
the frequency, the more power it can carry and thus transfer to a suitably
designed Receiver. A slowly pulsing Magnetic
Field at 1 Hz that is, say 1 Tesla, will feel a lot stronger than the same 1 Tesla
Magnetic Field that is spinning at 5
KHz, as the North and South Poles of the Magnetic Field doesn’t stay pointed
long enough in one direction to effectively attract and pull an object in.
The
same analogy can be seen with electrical wires or even a Motor. When the Motor
is stationary or the wires is carrying DC Power, if you stand close enough to
it, the Magnetic Field will have a
pulling effect on anything ferrous that you may have on your person or attached
to you directly.
But
once the wire is carrying AC power or the Motor starts turning, the Magnetic Field
starts to rapidly spin. Even though the Magnetic Field is strong, its effective
strength is less as its rapidly rotating, making it hard for a Magnetic Field
to effectively attract anything ferrous that's nearby.
However,
the rapidly pulsing Magnetic Field, which can also be created by rotating the
poles of a Magnet at a rapid rate, because of the Kinetic Energy imparted due
to its rapid rotating, can transfer an immense amount of Energy. Much in the
same way a higher frequencies of Electro-Magnetic Radiation i.e. Radio Waves or
even Visible Light or Gamma Rays, have higher Energy due to having higher
Frequencies.
This
makes high frequency rapidly rotating Magnetic Fields excellent for transmitting
Electricity via Magnetic Induction using Lenz’s Law of Electro Magnetic Induction.
The trick is to make the Magnetic Field Pulse on and off so rapidly that it
exceeds the hysteresis of ferrous material and thus doesn’t cause attraction or
a pulling effect.
However,
it will still induce a Magnetic Field in
a suitably designed non-ferrous Receiver whose material has a Hysteresis curve
that indicates that it can be Magnetically
induced at such high rates or rotation, typically 1 GHz or higher.
The
physically observable effects of such Magnetic Induction are a heating effect
in nearby non-ferrous metals e.g. Copper, Silver, Gold, etc caught in the
rapidly rotating Magnetic Field. At such high frequencies of rotation and
reversals of Magnetic field, the current generated results in what’s referred
to as the Skin Effect in metals i.e. heating of the outer layers of a conductor
due to it carrying high-frequency electrical currents.
It
is for this reason that in Telecoms, Waveguides are used to carry high
frequency radiation, as at frequencies above 1 GHz, the heating effect caused
makes the resistance of the wires increase. Thus this easily gives clues as to
how the KAIST Device works and more interestingly, at what operating frequency it’s
using to achieve this remarkable feat of Engineering!
IEC Charger Standards
now obsolete - KAIST makes an Earth based Magnetar
All
the KAIST Team have done is to create a very powerful rapidly spinning Magnetic
Pulse Motor that operates much like a Magnetar i.e. a Pulsar whose Magnetic
Poles rapidly rotate and has a field strength in the billions of Teslas. Only
instead of Billions of Teslas, it may just be about 1.2 Teslas or so, as such
high level of Magnetic field equivalent to a Magnetar would rip the atoms with
unpaired Electrons with opposite spins out of the molecules in your body!
Due
to the high rate of rotation, only certain materials that have a certain
Hysteresis curve can be magnetically induced and will cause a heating effect,
generating Electricity via Lenz’s Law as it relates to Magnetic Induction.
With
a suitable step down Transformer, the electricity generated by the Receiver can
then be rectified to DC power or have its frequency adjusted to power the
device in question, be it a large LED TV and three 40-watt fans!
Magnetic
Fields are affected by moisture in the air, as water molecules, due to their
exposed Hydrogen Nuclei, will be attracted to the Magnetic Field generated by
KAIST’s rapidly spinning Magnetic Pulse Motor.
Just
like a rapidly spinning Magnetar in Outer Space! Only with a smaller Magnetic
Field!
To
this end, they must have developed a way to reduce moisture gathering inside of
the DCRS, possibly via using a moisture trap that absorbs stray moisture that
gets into the machine. They also improved on the ventilation to keep the
rapidly spinning Magnetic Pulse Motor cool.
The
KAIST Team may have used Hollow Waveguides or a Ceramic Conducting Coil for the
coils instead of wires, as Hollow Waveguides or a Ceramic Conducting Coil would
still generates a Magnetic field due to electromagnetic Induction without
significant heating effect.
Most
likely they don’t have a physically spinning Motor, just a Hollow Waveguides or
a Ceramic Conducting Coil that rapidly turns on and off and projects the Lobes
or Poles of Magnetic Field precisely in a particular direction.
This
as with that frequency of Electricity coursing through the Hollow Waveguides or
a Ceramic Conducting Coil, they’ll get very hot due to Skin Effect,
necessitating that they be made of some exotic non-ferrous Ceramic Material
that conducts electricity, possibly CNT (Carbon Nanotubes).
Hence
the need for a Transmit and Receive Coil on the DCRS to determine the distance
from the DCRS to the object and adjust the spinning Magnetic Field accordingly!
The Input is where the power is fed into the coils and the Load is a Dummy load
for situations where no objects are using the DCRS, thus making sure it’s
constantly operating without having to be totally powered down and thus completing
the circuit!
The
minute someone walks into the room with a device that has the specially
designed Receiver, it establishes transmission and reception based on how the
objects resonated with the frequency of the rapidly spinning Magnetic Field and
begins to transmit power to that device.
If
KAIST chooses to commercialize this device and possibly get it smaller, we may
not need to have standards for a Universal Laptop Chargers. This standard is
currently being pursued by the Swiss based Electronics and Electrical Standards
Group, the IEC (International Electro-technical Commission) as described in my blog article entitled
“Swiss
Technical Standards Body IEC developing Universal Laptop Charger specs for
early 2014 - Post-Analog Power Cord and Power Adaptor Era should focus on Waste
Energy Recycling”.
Here’s
hoping that KAIST can develop a more portable Magnetar that can be carried in
the pocket, derive its Input Power from Solar and can re-charge Laptops and
smartphones anyplace, anytime!
While
they’re at it, they can also make other spin-off devices, such as a Coaster for
heating Coffee or Tea or even a levitating Flying Saucer using the same
Technology, a device that I’ll probably explain in another article, as Magnetic
Induction is an excellent way to heat and cook foods as well make things
levitate and fly across the room!
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