Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Wireless Electricity: When Can We Unplug Our TVs?

Transcript

Wireless Electricity: When Can We Unplug Our TVs? · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, get this. We're coming probably to a city
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: near you this year. We've got all of our shows
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: scheduled and Chuck's gonna tell you about them right now.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: That's right. We're gonna be in Medford, Massachusetts, Washington, DC,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: and New York City on May twenty, thirtieth and thirty first.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Right then we're going to be going to Chicago, Minneapolis,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: and Indianapolis on the seventh, eighth, and ninth of August. Yeah,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: and they're gonna wind it up in Durham, North Carolina
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: on the fifth of September, and then Atlanta on the seventh.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: And tickets are on sale now. You can go to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: stuff youshould Know dot com or go to link tree
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: slash sysk and we would love to see you there.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Tickets are on sale now, so we'll see you soon.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just futzing around
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: having fun doing what we do. You're on Stuff you
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Should Know that right tex Stuff Edition It is heads
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: off to John Strickland, who's still doing it all these.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Years, we're all still doing it.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I know they won't let us stop.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: My god, we're still doing it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think he's in year fifteen now.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Uh I was, Yeah, he was like shortly after us, right.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right out on the heels. I can always
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: feel them breathing on our neck. It's really gross. He
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: has a very humid breath.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Gross.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, the reason you said this is Tech Stuff
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Edition is because this is super tech. Ye, there's a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: lot of technical stuff that we're going to dance around.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: It's future facing m hm, and it's the kind of
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: thing that everybody hopes will hurry up and come but
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: probably doesn't know very much about. So here we go
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: tech stuff.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Ahoy, everyone except me.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: You don't want this.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: I know. The whole time I was reading it, I
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: was like, man, it just sounds like a lot of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: work to just not have to plug in your phone.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a lot of word to just not
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: have to plug in your phone. But I mean, haven't
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you ever like looked around your house and been like,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: these wires are just so stupid, Like I hate having
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: chords and stuff you have to plug in. You have
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to like put something where the outlet is or else
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you have to use a drop cord. It's just it's
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a it's a little more of a pain if you
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: stop and think about it, then it appears because we're
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: used to it. We've lived under the tyranny of courts
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: for so long. It's normal to us. But it's not normal, Chuck.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Oh, so you're thinking of future where nothing in your
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: house is plugged in precisely? Oh no, sure, great, I.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Can't wait for that day. I cannot wait for that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: And not only that, there's a there's the The last
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: thing we're going to talk about is what I'm really
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: jazzed about.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Uh Okay, I don't want to spoil.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: It, so don't don't don't bring it up. But everybody,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: just stay with us through the end and you'll be rewarded.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And what we're talking about is wireless electricity, or
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: more appropriately, wireless power transfer. Because if you think about
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: your your cell phone that you can just sit on
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: a little pad and charge it wirelessly. That thing's plugged
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: into the wall. So what you're doing is you're transferring
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: power from one thing to another.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: But imagine if that that charger, that pad that you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: lay your phone on is your house or no, it
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: was like mounted on the ceiling of your of your room. Yeah,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and when you walked into that room, immediately your phone
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: just started charging in your pocket. You turned your TV
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: on and it was going full blast, no problem. And
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: then you look behind it and you faint dead away
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: because it's not even plugged in, and you think there's
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a ghost in your house or God is messing with you.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I just I don't think it. Jazz is me, like it,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Jazz is you.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: That's fine.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to try to convince I've never looked
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: behind a TV on a wall to look for gable, so.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, well, then you haven't.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: But we can talk about the history of it, right,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: because this is not a new thing. People have been
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: trying to do this basically since there was electricity.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would have traced it back to Tesla. Tesla
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: was very, famously, very interested in trying to figure out
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: how to create wireless electricity that he planned on sending
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: through the Earth from one end to the other, basically
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a global wireless electrical network. Right. He didn't, as we'll see.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: But what I didn't realize is it predates him even.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, before him, there was a German physicist name Heinrich Hertz,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: who he was a guy who said, hey, manet, electromagnetic
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: waves are a thing. I can prove it. And he
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: was able to send energy in the form of radio
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: as between two antennas in the eighteen eighties, which predated
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Tesla's little party trick that I think all of us
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: probably saw in science or not saw but read about
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: in science class, or saw on the prestige. Yeah, some
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: point where he's like, I'm going to make this light
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: bulb light up, Uncle Fester style, except I won't even
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: put it in my mouth.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Right, And it was a different light bulb. It was
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the predecessor of the fluorescent light. So the gases, when
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: they came into the presence of a either a magnetic
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: field or electrical current, it would glow, it would light up.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: But he did actually demonstrate this. He showed that you
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: can loved it, you can wirelessly power things. And yeah,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: this is still the nineteenth century. There's a legend that
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of times is repeated as fact by a
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: lot of legitimate sources, but supposedly there's no actual evidence
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of this happening. There's a legend that he lit up
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a crop of light bulbs, like I think twenty five
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: miles away from his research station in Colorado, and that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: would be like the far and away the longest transmission
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of wireless power in history. No one's even come close
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: to that here in the twenty first century. So they
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: think that it probably didn't happen. But he was trying
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to do that, but he didn't actually do it.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I have a question, sure, will you remember what's it
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: called when you say like a gaga lo geese or whatever?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: We did that short stuff on it whatever? You just said,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: a crop of light bulbs? Is that the term for
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: a lot of light bulbs?
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I say, I say it is? Sure?
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, I thought that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Was a pronoun. Was it a collective pronoun?
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I don't know. But did you just make that up?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Or is that a thing?
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, it just came out of my mouth.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, do you like it? Sure? Sounds like you're growing
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: light bulbs out in the field or something.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: By light bulbs. They'll say, you got a crop of
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: light bulbs here I can buy.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: I love it. I mean that's probably a use for crop.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: I just didn't know about.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I know, I will say, hey, man, clerk me a
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: crop of light bulbs.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So Tesla's got his party tricks happening. May or may
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: not have done this to a crop of light bulbs
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: over a greater distance. World War two rolls around, and
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden, we're using radar and we're learning
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: how to generate like more improved and more directional and
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: precise beams of microwaves and things like that. In nineteen
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: sixty four, and you can watch this video on YouTube.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: It's kind of fun to watch a William Brown of
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Raytheon kept up a little sort of I mean, it's
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: a helicopter, looks like it's made out of a rector
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: set maybe yeah, about sixty feet off the ground for
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: ten hours with no wires.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And they could have gone longer, but the novelty
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: wore off, so he just stopped after ten hours.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, all right, does everyone get it right?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Can we go home? Now?
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Like? How many times in part to pass this hula
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: hoop over it? Right?
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Right? So that that was a huge, huge accomplishment, And
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I believe the same William Brown of Raytheon created another
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: record that stood until from nineteen seventy five until from
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: what I can tell, this past January, like a month ago.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy five, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab transmitted I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: think thirty five kilowatts of power, and like fifty percent
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of what they transmitted I think a quarter of a
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: mile away or something like that, was received and lit
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: up another crop of light bulbs. That's what people do,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: They light up crops of light bulbs when they're demonstrating
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: what matters electrical.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Trans because they light up and everyone's like, ooh.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and actually I'm sorry. It was more than a
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: quarter mile. I think it was basically a slat mile.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: It was like one point five to four kilometers.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a really long way. And it stood
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: from nineteen seventy five till twenty twenty four, almost fifty years,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and then I believe the Korean Space Agency just broke
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: it by like three tenths of a kilometer. Really, it's
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: not like we've jumped by leaps and bounds. And almost
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: if I were William Brown would be like, really, you
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: could just wait until you could beat it by like
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: ten times that.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not very sports have been.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Like no, it's like if you made the world's biggest bagel, right,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and somebody made another world's biggest bagel by like ten
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: more pounds. What's the point Are we really just gonna
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: go back and forth year after year with a new
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: world's biggest bagel? No, you need to really like double
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: it up at least before you break somebody's record. It's
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: just common courtesy.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: You know, how to really get their goat. It's just
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: drop one extra poppy seat on top o me has
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: more mats.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Man, I would just start bleeding out of my ears.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: So this can happen in a couple of ways, and
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: who knows what the future holds. We are going to
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: get to that stuff like you were talking about, Like
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: you walk in and everything's just like charging the second
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: U inner. But these days we have what's called nearfield
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: and what I like to call further afield, but farfield
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: wireless transfer. When you think of nearfield, you're already doing that.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: If you have an electric toothbrush, if you have a
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: modern smartphone that can wirelessly charge. We'll talk about the
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: two different ways those are happening, but those are examples
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: of nearfield. And I think a lot of people like
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: I was, are amazed to know that when you put
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: that little electric toothbrush on its stand. Unless I'm wrong,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: That little nubbin is only there to keep that thing upright.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: It's not conducting electricity at all, is it?
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: As far as I know, No, because the whole thing's
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: fully sealed, so the electricity is going from plastic to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: plastic via waves.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: So it looks like a little like a charging stump.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: But you could just assume lay it down on top
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: of that thing, right.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I think for an electric toothbrush, what
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: we're talking about at this point is called wireless in duction.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: In charging, it's the same kind of principle that you
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: use for an induction cook top. Magnetic fields are generated
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: that create an electric current that's passed to another coil
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: on the other side that's received, and then that's attached
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to a battery that gets recharged. Right, And I think
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: for something like a toothbrush, it has to be really precise,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: so the coils have to basically line up as close
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to one another as possible, but they don't have to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: physically touch, which is why you can encase it in
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: plastic and seal it off and use it for an
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: application that's around water, like an electric toothbrush. But I
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: do think that has to be precise. I think you
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: can get a little more jiggy with it with the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: resonant induction charging, where the coils are bigger or there's
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: more coils. But they also have I don't know how
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: they do this, but they make the frequencies that come
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: out of one coil and go into received by the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: other perfectly in sync, so that the the coils are
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: basically tuned to one another. So you can actually keep
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: something a little further away and still get a charge
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: out of it.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, so I was wrong, then that stump serves the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: purpose of probably aligning it perfectly, probably, although it's not
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: actually you know, like a charging stump. You probably could
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: not just set your toothbrush down with a butt in
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: near that stump, you know what I'm saying.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: No, but if you're talking about like your phone on
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: like a pad charger, you just kind of set it down. Sure,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Sure it'll still charge, even though it's not like perfectly
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: centered on the charger, depending on the type of charging station.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I have seen those to be fairly hit
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: or miss through the years. Yes, the little charging pad
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: sometimes they work. Sometimes you've got to move your phone
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: around it and it makes more sense now than I
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: know how it works why you may have to move
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: your phone around. And it's also slower than like a
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: wall charge, which you know is one of the the
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: humps to get over that we'll get.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: To it is, and they have basically gotten over that hump.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: So for a while I didn't realize this, but Nokia
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: was the first to be like, hey, everybody, check out
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: our wireless charge. Well back in twenty twelve, I had
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: no idea. Yeah, and that set off like a whole
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: stampede where every phone company wanted to create a wireless
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: charging pad, right, and so everybody was coming up with
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: different protocols, different structures on how to make this happen,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and finally a group called the Wireless Power Consortium basically
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: emerged with their cheese standard key like the Chinese traditional
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: medicine concept of the life force that flows through.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Everything, Yeah, like gigong exactly.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's also associated with this wireless power transfer to
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: where everybody builds it the exact same way. Right, So
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. But it wasn't like you had to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: get it pretty much dead on to get a decent
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: charge out of it, like you said it was. It
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: transferred far less power, I think about five watts rather
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: than the standard fifteen eighteen or more that you get
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: from plugging your phone in. Yeah, so they came up
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: with G two point zero and you know the new
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Apple Apple chargers that like snap onto the back of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: your your phone with a magnet.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: No, oh, really, do you have my iPhone? I do?
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Is it fairly new?
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Uh? Let me see what I usually get, like every
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: third or fourth version.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, you may or may not have this. I don't know.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I couldn't even tell you what if you told me
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the the which one it was, I'd be like, oh,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: actually I don't know. So I don't know why you've
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: been asked to that. But the newer iPhones, yeah, that
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: should have it. I think that's what I have too. Yeah,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: it is and it works. So there's a there's a
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: type of charge you can get called a mag safe charger.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I got that.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, so then this you have what I'm talking about.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: It snaps into place, so like magnet, it holds the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: phone in place, right, Yeah, I got one of those
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: in my car. Okay, So what that's doing is it's
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: holding the coil to the coil, so that in addition
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to them being powerful and tuned to the same frequency,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: they're also precisely interlocked, so the transfer of power is
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: way more efficient. And now they're reaching like power transfer
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: like fifteen, eighteen, twenty watts, just like you would have
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: with a traditional like pluging cord.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know what, I'm not much of a
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: what do you call it? Buzz marketer, but I have
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: to say the car charger from Spiegel is what I like.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: The catalog I don't know, it's SPI E G E L.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Is that spelled to save? Yeah, spell the same. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: mean their charger. It's fifty bucks and it works flawlessly,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: and it looks good.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And it just says a pompadour.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Well it sticks on, you know, but the little stick
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: on base is smaller than other ones I've seen, so
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: if you know, sometimes your car you can't get it
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: in like a great place or whatever. But anyway, I
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: think it works great, and so I do actually use
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: this technology very nice.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, so make safe so you have that. But the
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: thing is is we've actually kind of gone backwards in
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: that sense where you're getting more power transfer again wirelessly,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: like you're not plugging your phone into anything. It's laying
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: on something that is connected to a power source, but
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: your phone's not plugged in, so it is wireless power transfer.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: But rather than making it easier to just toss your
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: phone onto a pad or a table or something like
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: that and it immediately starts charging, it has to be
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: more precise. Hence the magnets. Sure, we want to be
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: going in the opposite direction to where your phone doesn't
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: even really have to be anywhere near that charging pad
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to get a charge, and that's where people are moving toward.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: But the cool thing about the sheet two point zero
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: is that this protocol is it's spreading out so that
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: if you had, say like an Android phone and iPhone,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: you would be able to use the same charger for both,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: which is brand new. That's a new thing, and that's
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: a really great way for the industry to be going
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: because it cuts out on packaging, cuts out a manufacturing,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: it cuts down on all sorts of stuff it costs.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: So it's a good direction to be going in.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and divided houses can come together once again exactly
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: this kind of charging. There is a future application that
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: might be kind of cool. If you drive an electric
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: car to where you pull in your garage and you
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: just pull over charging Matt much like your telephone basically
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: to where you wouldn't have to plug it in or whatever. Again,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: for me, it's like it's no trouble to plug something in,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: so it's not that big of a deal. But I
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: imagine these little conveniences are a big deal to a
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: lot of people for sure.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I think the one that I'm really excited about is
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: like that plus application, which is putting those kind of
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: coils that transmit electricity wirelessly to a receiver coil in
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: your car in asphalt, so when you're driving on the highway,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: your car is actually charging. That would do it. That
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: would do it for gas engine cars people, you would
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: have to just be a total jerk to have like
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: an internal combustion engine after that point, because that's the
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: big problem with it. Like do you remember that stupid
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: electric car that I rented in Seattle and drove to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Portland and I had to sit for forty five minutes
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: in this little town doing nothing but waiting for the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: stupid rental car to charge. That is no way to live.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But if I had just been able to drive down
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: what is that five? The five, and that what they
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: call it.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: I think that's a California think.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, if I had just been able to drive
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: down I five and my car's charging the whole time, perfect,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: there's no reason for any any fossil fuel car all.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Now, is the idea there that every road in America
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: has is redone with charging capabilities underneath it.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: What I would guess is they would you would probably
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: just need to do one lane.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: And then and then maybe only on expressways or something.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Right, So one lane on an expressway and you like,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: if your car has over some amount of charge, like
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the Cultural Folk Way would be, you don't go on
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: that lane. You leave it open for people who really.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Need to charge the car. That'll go over well exactly
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: in the United States. That'll that'll become the uh look
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: at that jerk lane.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah, it'll be like the new driving slow in
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the fast lane thing.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I look forward to that day. I'm gonna be old
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: and feeble and I just you can send me updates
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: on how things are going from the road.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: But that's but that's all. But you just need one
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: lane like that on a stretch of highway, and I
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: think that would do it, at least at first, all right,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I we get this done like tomorrow, all.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Right, But in the meantime we should take a break, okay,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: because we're gonna have to buy some tools. Okay, all right,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: we'll be right back. All right, So we're back. Josh's boy.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Look at the smile on your face thinking about driving
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: untold miles without having to stop.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's just going to change everything.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Peeing in a gatorade bottle. You're not stopping for.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: Nothing, No, no way.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Just think of the cannonball run I have.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take this opportunity, all right, But yes,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the cannonball run would work really well with that. Yeah,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: if you I see this enough that I feel like
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: this is worth mentioning. If you ever find yourself in
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: an emergency situation where you have to pee into a
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: water bottle or a mountain dew bottle or something like that,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: that's fine, that's fine. Like that is a thing you
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: have to do sometimes. I never have, but people do it,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and I get it. But you don't leave that on
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the side of the road for somebody else to pick up.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: That is yours to hang on to until you're able
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: to dispose of it. In the trash where it belongs. Yeah,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: put the cap on, get it out of your way,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: make sure it doesn't spill or anything like that. But
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: you do not set that outside of your car until
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: it goes into the trash. That is, it's tied for
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: first with throwing your dental floss stick down on the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: ground for someone else to pick up.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The only time I will do that is camping.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: If it's rainy or really really cold, then I'm in
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: my tent. I will have the forethought to bring an
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: appropriate bottle smart so I can just get out of
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: my sleeping bag and you know, and ppe in the bottle.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: A big wide mouth bottle, Am I right?
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: And then I just leave it there in the woods.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: No, no, of course not okay, okay, I was shocked.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: All right. So we're back and we're getting started now
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: on far field wireless transfer. Because your phone on your nightstand,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: that's great. Driving over a mat in your garage would
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: be amazing, But you really are cooking with gas, as
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: they say, ironically, not with gas. If you can start
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: figuring out how to do this over longer and longer frequencies,
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: and they are figuring that stuff out by ways of
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: electromagnetic waves or which you know, what you do is
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: you send it out as an electromagnetic wave, it transmits
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: it as a beam, then it converts it to power
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: or through laser beams.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, so you can do laser you can do millimeter waves,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: you can do I think microwaves is are the big
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: ones because they'll I mean they'll they're electromagnetic waves, so
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: they're an energy carrier and all you need is a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: way to convert electricity to electromagnetic energy and then a
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: way to convert it back on the other side, and
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: then you've just transmitted power from a distance.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: That's what they're possible already, right, They just absolutely haven't
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: figured out a great consumer application because it's not efficient
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: or great jeap.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: That's the problem. It's not cheap and it's inefficient. So
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: yes that I believe there are consumer products out there,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: just a handful of them that you can spend a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: lot of money on and be like, look, this thing's charging.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: It takes forty eight hours to get to five percent,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: but it's charging wirelessly. That's where we're at right now.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: But it is possible. People have figured it out. But
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: just like with that CHI protocol, with like the charging
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: pads that the industry is in the same place right
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: now with figuring out a a common protocol for everybody
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to use now. So it's kind of the wild West
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: any they're trying to figure out the best way to
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: efficiently do it and also safely do it, as we'll see.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in one application they can use it on today
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: that does make sense. And Livia dug this up and
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: helped out, and this one makes a lot of sense.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: With RFID tags radio frequency identification tags, and you've probably
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: heard of these. There's all kinds of applications for these,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: but one of the big applications is if you have
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: like a warehouse full of stuff, instead of having a
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: barcode on every single thing that you have to walk
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: up to with a bar code scanner like several inches
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: away or whatever, you can track your inventory more efficiently
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: because it can if you do it through RFID, you
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: can group things together, you can scan a bunch of
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: stuff at once, you can scan it from three, four
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: or five feet away, maybe you don't have to be
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: right there up on it. So using this technology to
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: have little RFID tags that don't require batteries is a
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: realistic application.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you just said a mouthful with that. They
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: don't require batteries, because that's a big reason why you
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: would want to use something like wireless power transfer is
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: with the little RFID tags, they have an antenna in them,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: but they don't actually have any power. They're not internally powered.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: But when that radio wave hits it, it carries just
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: enough energy to make contact with it, give it a
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: little juice. There's a modulator inside that takes that radio
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: wave and converts it back to shoot back out to
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the scanner with a little with its number associated with it.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: All without batteries. It just uses They figured out how
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to use the energy in that electromagnetic wave in the
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: form of radio waves, and so we're already doing this again.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: It's just really inefficient. But they're onto something with that
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: because you know, we've entered the Internet of Things. I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: think we did a whole episode on that way. I'll
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: bet that needs so much updating.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably so.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: But all the little like sensors in your refrigerator, all
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the little little gadgets, the thing that connects your refrigerator,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the to Wi Fi. Now all of these things are
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: like really tiny little components and the smaller the component.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: The harder it is to put a decent battery in there,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and you also kind of want a rechargeable battery too,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: but some of them don't have batteries. They still are
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: going to report that say like you're running it low
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: on ketchup or something like that. Wireless energy would be
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: able to do the same thing that we're doing with
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: RFID tags, but with the little sensors and chargers that
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: make up the Internet of things that make your home
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a smart home.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or to not have to have a follow up
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: surgeries to replace batteries in your pacemaker would be pretty.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Remarkable, Yeah, Because that's another like really big part of this,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: in addition to like the whole g whiz aspect of
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: it and the no chords they which I'm really happy about.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: The bigger point in the near term is that it
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: will do weigh with disposable batteries. All will have is
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: rechargeable batteries. If we have any batteries at all. Some
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: things won't need it, but things that do need a
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: battery to keep going without a power source, those will
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: be rechargeable and they'll be more easily replenished with wireless
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: power transmission. So you can say goodbye to buying batteries
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: at the store. They'll just be gone and the earth
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: will breathe a deep, deep, happy sigh.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well that is, and now we're getting into sort
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: of your utopia, which is these companies that are exploring
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: initially probably like a room system and then eventually a
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: whole home system to where what you described at the
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: beginning of the show would be possible, where you can
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: walk in your house the second you walk in, your
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: phone is charging in your pocket. If you have a
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: smart home and you have like powered blinds on your windows,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: those are always charged. They're not plugged in. If you
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: have remote control for your TV and everything else in
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: your home, they actually have a tiny battery made by
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: the company. In this case, I mean, we can go
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: back and talk about Guru, but there's a company called
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Oca inc Ossia, and they have a system called the
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: Kota system Ota, and that's the idea is you have
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: a unit in your house. It looks sort of like
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: a well it's a little smaller than a board game
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: and a little more square, and it's just a little
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: transmitting stand and it shoots power across the room. It
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: bounces it around and you have receivers that are attached
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: to your devices, like your receiver would be built into
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: your phone case in the case of a phone. Or
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: they're making what they're calling forever batteries, which is a
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: little double a battery that actually has a tiny receiver
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: in it, so that remote control battery will never die
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: and it essentially just makes any device in your house
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: compatible with this transmitter. The one thing I wondered about, though,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: was like, well, when is duras El gonna buy them
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: out and just shut it down?
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Oh? Man, I hope we don't run into something like that.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, big battery is a major threat to democracy, true,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: but I don't know. I think I don't know. I
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: think these other startups have some pretty good clout too.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Well, should we talk about Guru then, sure? Jumping back
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: a little, Guru.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Got together with Motorola and two years ago they debuted
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: basically a charger, an over the air charger, a wireless
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: power charger that was very similar in design. It seems
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: like to that Coda charger, and it can I think,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: charge four phones at once up to ten feet away
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: with one hundred degree field of vision, which is pretty cool.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It's still not out to market. I think people are like, yeah,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: but you guys didn't mention how efficient it is, like
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: how many watts does it transfer? And motoroles like stop
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: asking questions and they went back to the drawing board.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: But the code of stuff seems like it's so close
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: it might actually already be available in some areas.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: And didn't see it for sale yet, but I might
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: be wrong.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: They are touting their wireless power security camera, the archos AR.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Now that's a good use, yeah for sure. Yeah, because
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: if you have a house where you didn't have like
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: you if you have security cameras whatever, you didn't have
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: them built in and wired initially, and you're just like, oh,
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: I want to get a Nest cameras or any other brand,
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Like you got to plug those things in. Yeah, and
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: if they're outdoor cameras, you're either running wire to an
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: outdoor plug that someone could just unplug right or you're
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: drilling holes in your wall. So I think this is
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: a really realistic, like worthy application.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: It's part of like my week to go around and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: connect the charger, the outdoor charger to the outdoor cameras
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: and just top them off because they're not hardwired. So yeah,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: I agree with you. I think it's a great application.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Now imagine that for your TV.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Although kind of make one complaint real quick about security cameras. Yeah,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: they're great to have. They can help out with different
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: things and help out with neighbors. Hey I saw someone
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: and them like breaking into my car. Your neighbor has
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: a camera pointing, like we can all help. But in
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: my experience in Atlanta, with car break ins and house
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: break ins, I've had both, they don't help you catch anybody.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: They don't help stop anyone. So it's almost more like, hey,
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: you want to watch some guys steal your stuff? Right, Yeah,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: police can't really do much with them, and it certainly
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: doesn't keep anyone from doing anything. So I don't know
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: it's good for more than just like break in security.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I think there are a lot of if you have
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: dogs and you're like, want to see what your dog's doing,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: is eating the wrong thing or throwing up or you know,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: it's beneficial for a lot of different reasons, but catching
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: a bad guy at my experience, security cameras don't really
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: help with that.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: No, you're likelier to have some weird footage from your
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: camera end up on the national news or America's funniest.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Toying exactly catch a UFO or something.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you are likelier to catch a UFO
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: than somebody stealing packages off of your porch with your
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: security camera.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Sort of. The real deal here is like one day
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: when they can come up with a system where it's
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: built into Amtrak and subways and airports, so all of
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: these sort of heavily used public spaces are just charging
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: everyone's everything.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, And the problems are the same with the wireless
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: phone charging just across the board. Anytime we're talking about
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: wireless power transfer, it's the inefficiency is what's the big
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: stumbling block right now. Yeah, the further you get away
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: from the charger, Yeah, the less power the receiver is getting.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: The most i've seen, I think that ar Chose security
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: camera gets like less than a wt thirty feet away
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: at its maximum distance, which is still I mean thirty
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: feet is a decent.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Decent Is that enough to power it?
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I think as long as it had you probably would
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: have to charge it first, plug in when you first
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: get it, and then if it had continuous contact it
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: was constantly receiving it.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I would hope that they would design it so that
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: it uses less energy than that can get it its
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: maximum distance. I don't know, but that could be a
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: challenge right now. That's the kind of inefficiency problems that
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: it's running into. I think typically when you try to
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: transmit electricity through an electromagnetic beam, you get about twenty
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: percent on the other end of what you sent out.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: And that's even a step backwards from what the Jet
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Propulsion Lab did. They got forty nine percent across a mile.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: So I guess they just didn't tell anybody how to
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: do what they did, because we're still catching up to
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: what they did in nineteen seventy five. But so even
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: if you're like, okay, we're getting twenty percent of the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: electricity that we are generating converting to an electromagnetic wave,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: transmitting to another receiver, and then converting back to electricity,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: we're losing eighty percent of that. That is ridiculously inefficient.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: And people in the industry, which is basically just nothing
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: but startups and venture capitalists right now are saying, well, well, yes,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that's true, that's ridiculously inefficient. But we're talking about replacing
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: batteries right here, and the cost of the electricity that
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: is wasted is like five thousand times less than the
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: cost of a double a disposable battery. So really, if
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: you look at it in terms like that, it's we're
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: not that far off from it being cost effective if
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: we can use it to replace batteries.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And one of the cool pieces of or cool
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: parts of this tech is let's say you have a
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: room that's set up to charge everything in there. It's
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: apparently with this OSA system, it is it's bouncing all
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: over the room, pinging like one hundred times a second.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: So it's not like if you turn your back, it's
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: not shooting waves through your body and we'll get to
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: safety here after the break. But regardless of that, it
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: bounces around you. If you have your phone up to
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: your head, it will bounce around your head off the
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: back wall to hit the back of that phone.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Oh really, the OSA system does.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: That, Yeah, supposedly, and only delivers power like if something
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: needs it, so it's not constantly on and supposedly we'll
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: prioritize whatever's in the room that needs juice the.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Most smart Yeah, because just like RFI D tags that
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: chargers constantly surveying the stuff in the room that has
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: right a coder receiver attached to it and saying like,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: where are you at, what's your levels? You need some
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: you need some juice. I got some for you. They're like, no,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: not right now. I'm good, okay, but I'm here if
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: you need it kind of thing. Yeah, So I didn't
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: know that it actually went around people, though, which is
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: a big deal, because that's a genuine concern at this point.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: If you're beaming electricity throughout a home, if you're creating
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: an electrical field that's just indiscriminately moving everywhere in a room,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: it's going to come in contact with things that are conductive. So,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: like someone one issue I've seen raised is the idea
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: that you're just yeah, your pots and pants are going
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: to get super hot just sitting in the drawer in
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: your kitchen. Yeah, if you're using microwaves, if the microwave
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: is powerful enough it can cook you from the inside out,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: that doesn't seem to be a threat. I mean, the
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: people who are designing these things are like well aware
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: of the dangers of microwaves cooking human beings. So the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: stuff they're they're like deliberately setting these things at levels
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: that wouldn't be able to do that, but it just
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: kind of goes to show like that's the stage that
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: where i'd is like, that's still technically possible with what
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: we're doing. Laser beams can still shoot you in the eye.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: They could still burn your skin.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are the ones that don't hang around the room.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: If it's laser base, then you have to have a
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: direct line.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, and supposedly if you get in between the laser
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: and the receiver, it just automatically turns off. But you know,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: there's still that moment that singes your hair.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or you could have the high tech mirrored system
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: like any bank security in the movies, or I'm sorry,
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: museum security. Probably, Oh yeah, like that, like shooting the
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: lasers all around grid.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, that's awesome.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: And then before you know it, Catherine Zada Jones is
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: slinking underneath one of those things.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're like, what are you doing in my kitchen?
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: You're too old to be slinking around like that lady.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: You know, pull a muscle.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: So what else is there?
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: Well, we should take a break probably, oh yeah, yeah,
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: and then we'll come back and bush up with the
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: serious future right after this.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: All right, Chuck, So we're talking about future applications that like,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: this is the real whiz bang stuff that I'm just
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: really jazzed about because we're approaching that dream that Tesla
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: had of fulfilling that dream of basically creating a world
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: where everything's just getting wireless power all the time.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's a group called the Persistent Optical. This
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: is a plan the Persistent and we love our acronyms.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Is one of the best assistant optical wireless energy relay.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: What does that spell?
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Power? What have you got power?
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: It's a great one. I love it when it perfectly
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: aligns like that. And that was proposed by the US
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which we all know is DARPA.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: And this is a situation where they could beam electricity
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: from a web of aircraft flying above onto the ground
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: into let's say, either you know Libya's aid a conflict zone,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: but maybe a disaster zone where there's no power on
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: the ground anymore and people are dying. Potentially a web
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: of aircraft above could shoot this stuff down to the ground.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, but it does have immediate military applications because just
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: like how you know, people were saying, like, wait a minute,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: we have twenty percent efficiency of the electricity where we're
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: transmitting here. Yeah, the same thing is running into this
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: problem too, Like there's a loss of efficiency. But even
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: if there's a massive loss of efficiency, it's still more
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: efficient than literally flying in tanks of oil and gasoline. Yeah,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: into a conflicts owner disaster area, filling up generators and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: then plugging into those. It'd be still much more efficient
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: than that. And because it'd be more efficient, because it
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: would just give such a ridiculous advantage on the battlefield.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: This is probably coming down the pike.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but like you said, they have a leg up
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: because it's so inefficient. The alternative that we've been using
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: is that it doesn't have to be as efficient as
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: like a home version that we're talking about for people
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: to get on board, because that's one of the problems
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: is people aren't gonna start buying this stuff up. Even
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: that cool system we were talking about out for like
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: one room, you'd have to be a really you have
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: to have a lot of money and be a super
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: into early tech adoption to just kind of show it
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: off to friends. At this point, to make it mass marketed,
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: they have to make it so everybody sees the benefit
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: and can afford it, and that's not the case with
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: these potential military applications.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: No, but it's sad but true that the military research
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: and development has trickled down to a lot of really
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: important consumer items for short years too. And this could
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: be the same exact thing.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, there's another There's a group in New Zealand called
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: EMROD and they are basically creating line of sight towers
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: to where that just beams from one to the other,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: basically like those bonfire towers and Lord of the Rings. Yeah,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: it's just the same thing, but rather than like line
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: of sight, you're transmitting electromagnetic waves carrying energy, and then
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: at the other end, or probably at each of one
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: of these transmitters, you're able to convert it to usable
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: electricity and then you know, power up a disaster area,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: a rural area, whatever area you want to.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: I don't remember that from Lord of the Rings. Is
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: it just a signal over long distance? Yeah, like that,
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: like a bit visually signal.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, from like mountaintop to mountain top. They had like
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: a bomb fire and then at anybody else noticed it
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: and they let their bombfire and it was like a
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: transmission of information. That's what we're talking about in much
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: the same way that Wi Fi transmits information. We're talking
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: about the same exact thing, using the same essentially kind
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: of electromagnetic spectrum, but instead to transmit energy rather than information.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Like people don't freak out over a Wi
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Fi being being through their house and it's essentially the
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: same thing.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Some people do, like Chuck McGill from Wood.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, I haven't seen that, but I know there
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: are people.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So there's a really exciting application with that New
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Zealand structure where to tower. Yeah, the emrod one is
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: they could you could transfer wind energy from remote places
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: to an urban area that really needs that electricity, all
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: those renewables. So it's like the fatal flaws like you
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: they they're too far away from the grid. Nope, not
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: any longer. You can transmit it wirelessly through New Zealand
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: at least.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Well talking about being too far away, too far away.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: The think about being an outer space and having a
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: web of satellites outfitted with these huge solar panels far
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: above the Earth that could transmit energy down as microwaves.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: That is not out of the realm of possibility. In fact,
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: it's even been done just last year in twenty twenty three,
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: cal Tech, Yes, Caltech Space Power Project, they sent a
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: detectable amount of energy from a satellite to Earth.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: You know, I don't think they were charging a car
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: or anything like that, but they showed that it's possible.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and get this, Chuck, I mean, aside from the
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: infrastructure costs involved, that's free energy. You're just taking solar
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: energy and transmitting it, even if it's just a little
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: bit and there's a massive loss of efficiency. You're not
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: burning coal to get that. You're just you just built
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: a satellite that's harvesting it out and outer space, which
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: is a huge advantage, you know.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's like the first step toward a Dyson sphere. Really,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: if you think about it, I love it. That's the
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: one I was jazz the most.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: About the satellite one.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, harvesting solar injury in space and transmitting it as
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: a usable power down on Earth. That is jazz worthy
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: for sure.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: You got anything else?
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: I got nothing else?
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, Chuck has nothing else. Neither do I.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: We'll just have to sit and wait and see what
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: the future holds. And while we do that, let's say
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: It's time for listener now.
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: This is an email again from our old buddy Mark Konts.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: Marking Gale counts in the Ohio area, longtime supporters and pals,
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: and this is what Marcu has to say. And you
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: might remember Mark. He's an art therapist, Hey guys, licensed
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: art therapists and the director of mental health services at
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: the Clark County Education Service Center in Springfield, Ohio. My
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: team work extremely hard to provide Sources of Strength to
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: as many students as we can in the state for free.
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: Most people assume that suicide prevention work focuses on sad,
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: shock and trauma, but we run a program in our
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: schools called Sources of Strength, which capital s capital s
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: by the way, which focuses on hope, help and strength.
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: Sources of Strength is made possible to us through funding
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: and support from the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation and Prevention First.
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: Sources of Strength is more than just suicide preventions, an
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: overall wellness program focusing on eight protective factors, some of
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: them being positive friends, healthy activities, generosity, stuff like that.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: It is free to all Ohio students and can be
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: started in the classroom as early skindergarten. Meanwhile, the junior
• 46:10
  Speaker 2: high and high school students can work with adult advisors
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: of the program to run school wide campaigns and events.
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: Only skimming the surface here, guys, So if you live
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: in Ohio, you should look up Sources of Strength Ohio
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: dot org to learn more about it and become one
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: of the mini schools participating. If you don't live in Ohio,
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: you can still be a part of the movement that's
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: taking place in the US, Canada and Australia about going
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: to Sources of Strength dot org. And that is from
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: our old buddy Mark Goods.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks a lot for that. Mark. Good to hear
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: from you as always. And if you want to be
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: like Mark and talk about some amazing stuff you're doing
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: so we can tell everybody else about it. We love
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. You can wrap it up and
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: send it off to Stuff Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: more pod casts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.