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Flexible wireless charging sheet could eventually turn your skinny jeans into power pants (video)
If you haven't already heard, wireless charging is all the rage -- cars, cameras, and, of course, cellphones have all benefited from the burgeoning technology. Now a team of researchers at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) are showing off a 2D power transmission system that could turn your pockets into wireless charging stations. According to its creators, "When a 2.4GHz high frequency signal is transmitted through the sheet, it becomes a wireless conductive object." Electromagnetic waves are captured in the sheet and can be concentrated in particular areas, allowing for individual activation of multiple devices, and thus increasing efficiency -- systems like Qi currently require a dedicated transmitter per device. The NICT says the power it provides is still relatively weak -- about 1W -- but it has plans to eventually bring the technology to soft fabrics. So maybe that Snuggie charging station you've been dreaming of isn't so impractical after all.
KDDI haptic smartphone prototype promises up to seven layers of touch, only shows off two
Ah, another possibly vaporous, yet intriguing addition to a long line of haptic patents and prototypes. Today's offering: a KDDI smartphone mockup (utilizing Kyocera display technology) promising to render sensation through multiple layers of applied touchscreen pressure. Imagine depressing a camera shutter on a touchscreen, and you've got the idea. KDDI only had a screen sporting two haptic layers on hand when they demoed the prototype at Wireless Japan this week, but Kyocera reportedly told Akihabara News that the technology is capable of up to seven layers of tantalizing touch. Neat. Maybe we'll get a few authentic haptic touchscreens on the market and do away with all the vibrational fakery we've been seeing.
ZTE shows off recent smartphones at Wireless Japan
China's ZTE is still sticking to the low end in North America, but in its home country, the manufacturer is a huge player. Evidence of that lies strewn about ZTE's booth at Wireless Japan this week, where it's showing a pair of WinMo devices plus a Linux-based model that look ripe to compete with some of the best in the world. First up, the RAISE and XIANG do WinMo and HSPA for China Unicom's Wo network, rocking 5 and 3.2 megapixel cameras, respectively. The D820 reps the open-source world (though we're not sure what kind of Linux distro is running on it -- it's not Android, if we had to guess) and runs CDMA with WiFi, GPS, and a 2 megapixel camera. We're not sure if ZTE is using phones like these as warmups for more global launches, but given what we're seeing here -- and the low price points they're likely looking to hit -- we're all for it.[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]
Wireless USB 2.0 to dawn on the Japanese horizon?
Japanese researchers at KDDI have spliced two technologies that didn't seem to have much of a future in the wireless realm -- USB and Infrared -- and come up with a method for achieving transmission speeds of up to 1Gbps. Their innovation is in overcoming a latency problem that until now prevented USB 2.0 transmissions from being converted into Infrared signals and then back into electronic form. While still very early in the development and standardization process, this is a tantalizing premise, especially with ever-increasing storage capacities in portable devices. The new communication medium, which admittedly sounds a lot like irSimple, will be demonstrated for the first time at the Wireless Japan 2009 exhibition later this month, but we wouldn't hold out hope for an imminent release.
