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Nosferatu Phone

 Cellphone that never requires charging
 
(+3, -3) 		  [vote for,
against]

Now that modern mobile phones are actually powerful computers with handy telecoms applications, the Nosferatu phone goes one step further and drains the blood, sorry, electricity, from other nearby cellphones.

By firstly jamming nearby cellphones, the Nosferatu cellphone causes them to start broadcasting silently on max power, trying to find a connection. The Nosferatu Phone then activates its special antenna, perhaps even woven into a jacket or briefcase, and converts this blizzard of microwave transmissions into a current which charges its battery.

Refinement: Rather than just simply jam other phones, it could use sophisticated software to spoof other cellphones into almost any behaviour.

—Phanerothyme, Jan 02 2007

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       I think this is wishful thinking - you would get more power from solar energy.
—DrCurry, Jan 02 2007
   

       If your jacket was covered in a neat PV layer, then yes I agree.   

       I guess a 'charging jacket' would incorporate PV cells, thermocouples and a whole portfolio of generation methods.   

       But the nosferatu phone sits in your pocket - and when you sit next to someone else with a mobile, the phones will be within feet if not inches of one another. At this range I'm sure it would be possible to leech current from one phone to another.
—Phanerothyme, Jan 02 2007
   

       That's fair enough, I would be stealing your electricity, no different from a pickpocket.   

       So a completely passive system then? After all, cellphone antennas are broadly omnidirectional, so surely a large portion of their output wattage is simply wasted.
—Phanerothyme, Jan 02 2007
   

       I think that you'd find that in a perfect vacuum devoid of any charged particles for the magnetic field to interfere with, that the "energy drain" would be roughly zero. It is only the interaction of the magnetic field <that results from AC transmission> with matter, that is responsible for the energy drain you are referring to.   

       So, were you to insulate the wires from transmitting the magnetic field, or in some way contain the magnetic field within said insulation, and thus limit its interaction with conductors and charged particles, I think you'd have your "reverse transformer".   

       then again, I think inductive losses attributable to magnetic interference are almost negligible for AC destribution systems, most of the losses being attributable to resistivity of the conductors.
—Custardguts, Jan 05 2007
   

       If you could actually tap the induced current obtained from the rf from other phones, it would probably be less than the Nosferatu cellphone's own internal battery leakage current anyway. Especially if you wanted the phone to actively jam cellular signals to force other cellphones into high power mode, the power needed to do this makes this a lossy system!
—ollie2000, Jan 06 2007
   

       /start broadcasting silently on max power/ this must be why my cellphone runs out of charge fast when I am in a signalless area.   

       I hoped this might involve the receiver of the phone rising up from its bed on waking.
—bungston, Jul 18 2007
   


 

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