Friday, May 3, 2013

Amazon patent hints at battery-less Kindle - GMA News

Future Kindle tablets and e-readers may soon not only be wireless but also battery-less, a patent application by Amazon Inc. indicates.

The patent bid, made public by the US Patent and Trademark Office March 21, involves a remote display that wirelessly receives data and power from a base station.

“The primary station, which is remote from and without a tangible connection with the portable display, includes a data transmitting element and a power transmitting element. The portable display includes a power receiving element that receives power wirelessly from the power transmitting element and a data receiving element operable to receive data from the data transmitting element, “it said.

Listed as inventors in Amazon’s patent application filed last September 15 were Gregory Hart and no less than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

A separate article on GeekWire.com noted Hart was also an inventor with Bezos on the company’s smartphone airbag patent.

GeekWire.com said the patent application suggests a handheld device “with minimal storage and no need for bulky batteries or processors.”

The heavy-duty processing would be done by the base station that will also receive user input such as a gesture or voice command, it said.

Because of this, it said the remote displays can operate for “substantially longer periods” without recharging.

“No more pesky power cords,” it said.

One scenario where the setup may prove useful, according to the patent application, is in a college campus that may have many primary stations, allowing students to use their portable displays to “access data anywhere on campus.”

The setup may also allow the system administrator to charge users an access or usage fee to use the system. – LBG, GMA News

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