Have you ever seen the animated lightup cereal boxes in Minority Report? That movie may be set 40 years in the future, but the Trix rabbit may start talking sooner than you think. At CES last week, Fulton Innovations showed off a new technology it’s calling “eCoupled intelligent wireless power.” The technology allows objects of all kinds to be powered wirelessly and without clunky cases and dongles. Mobile phones, a small pot, and a cereal box that lights up were some of the demonstrations we were shown at the show.
Fulton is already in talks with mobile providers like LG and Samsung in hopes of embedding their technology (as small as a computer chip and very thin) into upcoming mobile phones, enabling wireless charging without any sort of case. More interesting is their plans for a wireless smart kitchen of sorts. Representatives showed off an instant soup container that could heat up its soup without the need for a pot or stove to provide the heat. It’s as simple as pulling a tab and placing the soup container on one of the wirelessly powered surfaces.
The cereal box demonstration is even more interesting. A man sticks his arm in front of our camera, but Fulton has created thin circular strips that can light up a cereal box when placed on an eCoupled surface. More useful, the cereal can actually report itself to a computer, allowing someone to know if Trix cereal is in the pantry without ever having to open it. It can also report nutrition information, quantities, expiration dates, and a host of other information. The use cases for such a technology are close to unlimited, including wirelessly charging an entire car, though we were not present for that demonstration.
My only fear are inevitable messes that will be started by Grandma accidentally leaving eight soup containers on the counter.
Warning: if you are still scared of that scene in Ghostbusters where the eggs cook themselves on the counter, this may not be the video for you.
This is exciting technology. But I am confused by how the box is lighting up. I can grasp the wireless charge, but does the box have tiny light-bulbs on it? Is there some kind of illumination technology that can be applied to cardboard surfaces that I am unaware of? I have been trying to figure this out since I saw a video of this, but I cant figure it out. Can someone please explain what is happening here? Thanks
Hi SCZ:
There are a number of printed illumination technologies that can be applied to paper substrates coated with the right barrier materials.
Paper-thin flexible printed electro-luminescenent light sources are created by depositing a phosphor based "ink" layer between 2 conductive layers. When charged with electricity the phosphor atoms excite and emit light. Electroluminescent light sources were 1st discovered in 1907 and were used as display illumination in cars during the 1960s. In addition to use in point of purchase displays and billboards, electroluminescent signage is now being employed to indicate street names in major cities like New York.
In addition to electroluminescent light sources, recent advances in the development of conductive and semiconducting polymers are yield a new array of flexible thin-film organic light emitting diode (OLED) light sources and display technologies. See: http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/oled.htm
Don Carli
Senior Research Fellow
The Institute for Sustainable Communication http://www.sustaincom.org
Amazing technology. This is exactly what appliance makers need to incorporate into their ovens, fridges etc. There was a demo at CES of a fridge where you literally had to manually add a product to the fridge when you came home from shopping. This way the fridge knows exactly when is in it, when it expires etc. No more having to type that info in there.
Now my question on the wireless power demo, I assume they will need to have a special battery in those product ala Powermat? If so, that would get awfully expense. No one wants to buy a phone, then go out and spend an extra $35 for a special battery for it.
totally agree on the powermat reference.
I'm actually really excited about food reporting itself into inventory management.
What i'm not excited about is going to the grocery store and seeings rows of food blinking their lights at me. "Hey, buy me! I'm good"
It's like the kid that keeps making that toy at the store that plays noises and flashes lights, and he keeps pushing the button that does it, over and over.