I have an old house which means that many corners don't have electricty sockets but I would like lamps in some of those corners. What I need therefore is a lamp that can find the way back to a charging station when I am not using it, recharge itself and then find the way back to the corner I want it for.

It would need three components.

1. The lamp itself standing about 1.5m high with a rechargeable battery located in the base. The base would be wheeled and powered and have locators built in to find the way to the two location points. Low energy lightbulbs to reduce power usage would provide the actual light.

2. A charging station emitting infrared signals so that the lamp could find it.

3. A preferred location base emitting infrared signals.

At a preset time (say 2am) the lamp would shut down and set off in any direction until it located the charging base transmissions which would allow it to home in on the charging base. It would then recharge until fully charged at which point it would again set off until it located the preferred location transmissions. Once it docks in the preferred location it transfers some of the power to the preferred location base ensuring that remains fully charged. The battery should provide for about 24 hours continuous use making it unlikely that the lamp will run out of power at any point although it would have a system recognising a low battery situation and shut itself down until the preset charging time.
-- The_Saint, Dec 06 2009

I love this idea, I'd probably allow my lamps to remain illuminated until they reach their charging station, just because really.
-- kaz, Dec 06 2009


[+] for any system that confers intelligent autonomy on household appliances.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 06 2009



random, halfbakery