Humans seem drawn to things they don’t fully understand. That’s why we have a hunger to explore the stars, and why it’s almost impossible for us to put down magnetic toys. The makers of those wildly popular Nanodot magnets have a new obsession for you: a magnet-powered gyroscopic sphere that has no real purpose besides holding our attention for hours on end.
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Device makers are bent on bringing us inductive charging, and Redmond has joined the fray with a recently allotted patent that describes all kinds of tech that could make it work better. For the charging itself, a trick is proposed that’s similar to one we’ve seen before — careful matching of the resonant frequency of charger and device. That would amplify efficiency and allow more than one device to be charged at a time. To make it easier to use, a pressure sensor could detect if a device was on the pad, with different parts of the pad allocated for smartphones or tablets, for instance. The patent also proposes a display placed opposite the charger to give it another use when it’s not juicing, which would be determined by a gyro to sense which side was facing up. Of course, a lot of patents are whimsical things, which never amount to anything — but judging by the detail in this one, Microsoft may have something more concrete in mind.
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals
Microsoft earns patent for claimed wireless charging improvement, pad with info screen originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Were you feeling the need for new tech to replace the switches that control direction and speed on your cordless screwdriver? Us neither, but we’re not the braintrust at Black & Decker, which just launched the Gyro 4V Max, the “world’s first motion-activated screwdriver.” The company put an InvenSense MEMS gyroscope in the new model, so all you have to do to change the direction or speed is rotate your drilling hand one way or the other in varying amounts. After you’ve polished off that Ikea shelf, it should be ready the next time you haul it out of the toolbox, with a Lithium-ion battery that stays juiced for as long as 18 months. Judging by the video below the break, it actually looks pretty clever, and at $40, why not start dragging your tools out of the stone age?
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household
Black and Decker screwdriver senses your hand movement to adjust speed, direction (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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