Christopher MimsJan 13, 2024

What if you never had to charge your gadgets again?

Well, a lot of your gadgets, anyway. And also, internet of things devices everywhere.

Indoor solar cells -- doing real work with just the light from your lamps -- are here, and they're finally good enough to be truly useful.

Here's a gift link:

https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/what-if-you-never-had-to-charge-your-gadgets-again-955ea960?st=au10swxxiiwywnv&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

What if You Never Had to Charge Your Gadgets Again?

Indoor solar power technology is finally becoming available; Some devices no longer need batteries at all

WSJ
Show threadPoligofskyJan 13, 2024
@mimsical Electric light as wireless charging? Sounds inefficient. But safer than beamed microwaves!
Show threadHoward Chu @ SymasJan 13, 2024
@brent @mimsical LEDs are pretty efficient these days. Incandescent lamps emit 90% of their input energy as heat. LEDs emit most of their input energy as visible light. (Tho I suppose, if you had a photoelectric cell tuned for infrared, it would work best with incandescent bulbs...)
Show threadPoligofsky

@hyc

I was thinking at the other side. The article states the photoreceptors achieve better than 30% efficiency. Which seems to be enough for the proposed applications. That light was dissipating anyway, right?

@mimsical

Jan 13, 2024 at 7:05pmWeb