Charging Cell phone battery... Wirelessly!!!

Imagine a situation... You are in the Express train, and your cell phone runs out of juice. You normally would set to find the Charging terminal in the train. But to my experience on years of traveling in the train, most of the charging points are "screwed up" and unusable. You then hop from bogie to bogie in search of a "perfect point". Finally, if luck is in your favor your phone gets refueld else you end up wondering how all the passengers seem to have chosen the very time to charge their cell when your cell is out cold?

There are many times in our lives when the cell phone is indicating low battery and we are desperately seeking a way to get the cell phone charged like a thirsty fella searching for a glass of water...

Very soon the "finding a charging point" would be a thing of the past. Enter the world of Wireless Charging.In near future you may just have to enable your bluetooth and pair it up with the "Recharger" Bluetooth. You Cell phone will be then ready to rock the world! That's quite like the stunt taken out from Sci-Fi Movie, you'll say! Well no...

The idea of wireless power transmission is not new. In 1899, Nikola Tesla wirelessly transmitted 100 million volts of electricity 26 miles to light 200 bulbs and run an electric motor. However, at that time direct current (DC, which is the wired method) and alternating current (AC) were competing technologies. DC, backed strenuously by Thomas Edison, emerged the winner.

But how does the Wireless charging work? For that we'll have to learn the technical basics.

Lets get Technical!!!
Wireless charging is any of several methods of charging batteries without the use of cables or device-specific AC adaptors. Wireless charging can be used for a wide variety of devices including cell phones, laptop computers and MP3 players as well as larger objects, such as electric cars. There are three methods of wireless charging: inductive charging, radio charging and resonance charging.

Inductive charging is used for charging mid-sized items such as cell phones, MP3 players and PDAs.
In inductive charging, an adapter equipped with contact points is attached to the device's back plate. When the device requires a charge, it is placed on a conductive charging pad, which is plugged into a socket.

Radio charging is used for charging items with small batteries and low power requirements, such as watches, hearing aids, medical implants, cell phones, MP3 players and wireless keyboard and mice. Radio waves are already in use to transmit and receive cellular telephone, television, radio and Wi-Fi signals. Wireless radio charging works similarly. A transmitter, plugged into a socket, generates radio waves. When the receiver attached to the device is set to the same frequency as the transmitter, it will charge the device's battery.

Resonance charging is used for items that require large amounts of power, such as an electric car, robot, vacuum cleaner or laptop computer. In resonance charging, a copper coil attached to a power source is the sending unit. Another coil, attached to the device to be charged, is the receiver. Both coils are tuned to the same electromagnetic frequency, which makes it possible for energy to be transferred from one to the other.The method works over short distances (3-5 meters).

At least my mom will be pleased to know this as she dislike the wires dangling from the electric point. Also the wires add pretty decently to the clutter on the desk.

Enjoy the freedom of Clutter Free life!

The days of mobile are numbered!

Come June 30, 2009 will be the last day of using a phone with a phony IMEI No. With that the usability of the phone will also cease to exist. According to the technology calendar, year 2008 was the year of security lapse! A person could easily get a SIM card from a local retail outlet with a little cost of Rs. 15/- for a SIM and start using the phone in matter of few hours. No verification done! Pre or Post. That gave the Nov 26 attackers an added advantage. Simply with a fake ID cards, you have a fully functional cell phone with you. It seems, our country is keen on learning any lesson hard way. After the attacks, the national cellular operators have taken up the task of customer authenticity/ verification. The solution is not that simple. There are many people living in the city who come from remote villages. They buy prepaid cards as they are very convenient. No hassles of bills! Most of them live as tenants, or share a room with other colleagues. How shall such verification be done? The attackers take the advantage of this loop hole to plan attack. Phone Operators now-a-days do call and verify the details. But is it fool-proof? There are no physical verification of address except in case of MTNL Mumbai. The problem does not end here. With the flood of China made phones at utterly cheap rates, it is attracting the price conscious customers like a house flies to the sweets (or shit). But the bug here is, most china made phones have an illegal IMEI no. IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity No.) is a unique 15-digit code implanted in handsets when they are manufactured. It help security agencies track terror suspects and for locating the missing ones! Keeping national security in mind, DoT Dept of Telecommunications, in October 08 asked operators to discontinue the services to handsets that do not have IMEI no. or having a fake number. But the so called last date has been postponed three times and June 30, 2009 is finally decided to be the D-day. You can check the IMEI no. by typing *#06# from your handset keypad. To verify if the number is genuine, Just type a SMS "IMEI" (w/o quotes) followed by a space followed by 15 digit IMEI number and send it to 53232. You will get the SMS describing the legality of handset! Now what if the IMEI number is fake? Soon there will be 1600 Genuine IMEI Implant centers that will be opened across Indian cities. All you will need to do is carry a valid ID card, driving license or voter's card to such center and with Rs. 180/- plus tax and 30 minutes of time the IMEI number will be changed to a valid, legal, no-issues number. Check the number before the days of mobile get numbered! O.A.K.