Communications of the ACM
Bonfire of the Cables
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University of Oxford researchers have developed technology that enables devices such as mobile phones to charge and transmit data without cables and could eventually eliminate power and data cables altogether. "You could have a truly active, cable-free, batteryless desktop that can power and link your laptop or PC, monitor, keyboard, mouse, phone, and camera," says Oxford's Chris Stevens.
The researchers already have built cable-free technology into a carpet to power a lamp and can achieve a 3.5-Gbits/second data transfer rate and generate hundreds of watts of power. Additionally, cable-free technology could help to recycle electronic devices because the fact that present devices are wired and soldered together is what makes them hard to reuse. "If you do away with wires and connect your components by sticking them onto a sealed circuit board, taking them apart becomes easy," Stevens says.
Stevens says the work is based on research into metamaterials that act like magneto-inductive wave guides and magneto-inductive power surfaces. "You can find simple inductive technology in the charging unit of an electric toothbrush but in this case we can transfer data as well, and over a distance," he says.
From University of Oxford
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