6 ms·

Wireless electricity enables next generation of annoying packaging

85 points by bootload 16y ago

jamesbritt 16y ago
That is fantastic. Annoying adverts? Sure, but countless cool shit, too.
- haydenchambers 16y ago
  like...
markkanof 16y ago
Wow, I feel bad enough about the waste I create with a regular cereal box. Now I will have to seek out an electronics recycler to dispose of every piece of food packaging.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  You could always switch to oatmeal. The non-packet kind, instant or steel-cut, has much less packaging, and it's almost certainly healthier for you.
- _delirium 16y ago
  It'll be interesting to see if the manufacturers or retailers will be required to do something about that (probably depends on the country). Will there be something analogous to the electronics-recycling legislation some countries have, where retailers (e.g. grocery stores), at least those who sell more than N amount of this kind of thing, will be required to accept the boxes back for proper disposal?
sliverstorm 16y ago
Guys, the future is here. And I'm not just being facetious. I mean, good lord.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
  - Groxx 16y ago
    "You need to build additional pylons." ? * ahem * >You must construct additional pylons. You require more Starcrafting. And minerals.
- ben1040 16y ago
  Next thing you know, the cereal boxes will be telling us about the new life awaiting us in the off-world colonies.
pyre 16y ago
The advertisers will not stop until every person on the face of the planet has some sort of attention span deficit disorder just due to the sheer amount of flashing, screaming, annoying crap that's all vying for your attention on a constant 24/7 basis so that you buy their products. Futurama's 'prediction' of advertisements beamed directly into your dreams isn't a far cry from something that an advertiser might do.
- viraptor 16y ago
  Don't worry - people get really used to flashing and screaming. I didn't pay much attention to TV / screens around me a couple of years ago. For about 5 years now, I live without a TV in my home - and I can see the effect. In pubs, I have to sit with my back to the screens, otherwise I can't stop looking every couple of seconds... it flashes, there's stuff happening, I can't have a normal conversation if I see it. Even typical slots machines are way more distracting than they appear...
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  If flashing screaming crap becomes the norm, I will be busy working on a pair of Adblock Plus Glasses. I'm not quite sure how they'd work, but were there's a will there's a way!
  - chopsueyar 16y ago
    I designed two counter-technologies to help people defend their personal space from unwanted electronic intrusion. Both devices were designed and prototyped with reference to the culture-jamming “Design Noir” philosophy. The first is a pair of glasses that darken whenever a television is in view. http://www.ladyada.net/pub/research.html http://www.ladyada.net/pub/research.html
    - bad_user 16y ago
      Yes, then offer those glasses for free; sponsored with ads shot straight in your retina.
- 16y ago
noonespecial 16y ago
EL films, coils, micro-controllers? MMMmm parts. The "toy surprise" just got a whole lot geekier.
klinquist 16y ago
I saw this at CES. Some of the more interesting applications the company had in their booth: * Charge your Tesla simply by driving it on top of a pad in your garage. They claim it's only 7% less efficient than the current plug charger. * Soup in a self-heating container. Place the container on your inductance charging pad, press a button on the container. The container itself contains a heating element.
- eru 16y ago
  If you just used a non-metallic container with a piece of metal inside, you can heat your soup via induction. Nothing fancy.
- patrickk 16y ago
  You can charge mobile devices by placing them on a pad. The Palm Pre had this out of the box. You can retrofit other phones like the iPhone to have this ability also.
  - StavrosK 16y ago
    The Pre has inductive charging? That's very interesting... I wonder if I can buy a pad for my Desire HD.
    - sbierwagen 16y ago
      Kinda. The Touchstone charging system is an optional-- and not terribly cheap-- (US$50) accessory. I use it, it's pretty neat. There's an advantage beyond the obvious: the charging puck is always stuck to a surface[1], and the phone should always be stuck to the puck, (using magnets built into the back of the phone) so I tend to lose the phone a lot less often. The OS can also tell if you're using the induction charger, if you pull it off the puck while the phone's ringing, it'll automatically pick it up, and switch to speakerphone if you put it on the puck during a call. There's also disadvantages. It can't transmit as much power as the USB cable, and it's quite inefficient, getting fairly warm in use. If induction chargers ever became popular, presumably the hippies would get upset about the pointless waste of electricity. [1]: There's double sided foam tape on the bottom of the puck that's actually the first application I've ever seen of the gecko setae "superglue" that various tech sites have been banging on about for the last decade. It never loses its stickiness, but also gets dirty astonishingly easy.
buro9 16y ago
OK, I'm going to put my hand up here and say I don't know what I'm on about... but hear me out. Cereals have iron in them, literally iron shavings are put into cereals to ensure that the population receive a good portion of the RDA. Iron is particularly susceptible to induction (all metals are, but iron moreso), and iron when exposed to an electrical magnetic field then magnetic hysteresis is going to occur resulting in the iron in the cereals taking on a much stronger magnetic field than is currently natural. Has this kind of effect been investigated such that this kind of packaging is known not to have any negative effect on the consumers of magnetised food? Additionally, my second thought concerned the use of RFID for stock check, and whether a shelving system laced with induction systems is going to interfere with RFID in any way? Basically... I'm trying to invent reasons this might not appear on a shop-shelf soon. I really don't want to enter a supermarket and be presented with something that looks like Vegas.
- jamesbressi 16y ago
  I'm not sure why you got down voted but I bumped you up one. Fascinating question regarding iron! Whether a realistic issue or not, I love when someone thinks of something offf the wall that didn't cross my mind. As for the RFID question, without going into length, no interference should occur
- arethuza 16y ago
  "literally iron shavings are put into cereals" Are you sure about that, I would have thought that iron would be in a compound form, not in the metallic form. For example food supplements use things like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron%28II%29_sulfate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron%28II%29_sulfate
  - buro9 16y ago
    Nope, it's just iron shavings: http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm07.asp http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm07.asp "The iron in the cereal is pure iron! Really! It is the same iron found in nails and automobiles. It is mixed in the cereal batter along with many other additives. The very tiny particles of iron quickly react with hydrochloric acid and other chemicals in the digestive tract, changing to a form easily absorbed by the body." That's a secondary school lesson guide for a science class in which the students extract the raw iron shavings from the cereal. It's a trivial process (you need a magnet, some water, and some crushed cereal - high iron content cereal obviously yields more dramatic results). The Times also has an educational piece on extracting iron from cereal: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2499454.ece http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertai... You can see in this video the extracted iron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V265pGgsBnM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V265pGgsBnM View from 2:30.
hackermom 16y ago
I can't wait to have the AC EMR from the coils of the shelves mess with my cellphone and my VISA's magnetic strip etc. as I walk up and down the aisles to find my son's favorite cereal brand.
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
One tic less annoying that the gumball machines that holler at you in the grocery store. We will need a logarithmic scale of ad intrusiveness?
mason55 16y ago
Do you think these boxes will have a cereal port?
j_baker 16y ago
Someone needs to hack together a cereal-box-b-gone, similar to tv-b-gone[1]. [1] http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php
bradleyland 16y ago
What a tremendous waste. In one corner of the mind-sphere, we have a renewed focus on green technology, and the other, we have glowing cereal boxes. One step forward, two steps back.

85 points by bootload 16y ago

jamesbritt 16y ago

That is fantastic. Annoying adverts? Sure, but countless cool shit, too.

haydenchambers 16y ago
like...

markkanof 16y ago

Wow, I feel bad enough about the waste I create with a regular cereal box. Now I will have to seek out an electronics recycler to dispose of every piece of food packaging.

sliverstorm 16y ago
You could always switch to oatmeal. The non-packet kind, instant or steel-cut, has much less packaging, and it's almost certainly healthier for you.
_delirium 16y ago
It'll be interesting to see if the manufacturers or retailers will be required to do something about that (probably depends on the country). Will there be something analogous to the electronics-recycling legislation some countries have, where retailers (e.g. grocery stores), at least those who sell more than N amount of this kind of thing, will be required to accept the boxes back for proper disposal?

sliverstorm 16y ago

Guys, the future is here. And I'm not just being facetious. I mean, good lord.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- Groxx 16y ago
  "You need to build additional pylons." ? * ahem * >You must construct additional pylons. You require more Starcrafting. And minerals.
ben1040 16y ago
Next thing you know, the cereal boxes will be telling us about the new life awaiting us in the off-world colonies.

pyre 16y ago

The advertisers will not stop until every person on the face of the planet has some sort of attention span deficit disorder just due to the sheer amount of flashing, screaming, annoying crap that's all vying for your attention on a constant 24/7 basis so that you buy their products. Futurama's 'prediction' of advertisements beamed directly into your dreams isn't a far cry from something that an advertiser might do.

viraptor 16y ago
Don't worry - people get really used to flashing and screaming. I didn't pay much attention to TV / screens around me a couple of years ago. For about 5 years now, I live without a TV in my home - and I can see the effect. In pubs, I have to sit with my back to the screens, otherwise I can't stop looking every couple of seconds... it flashes, there's stuff happening, I can't have a normal conversation if I see it. Even typical slots machines are way more distracting than they appear...
sliverstorm 16y ago
If flashing screaming crap becomes the norm, I will be busy working on a pair of Adblock Plus Glasses. I'm not quite sure how they'd work, but were there's a will there's a way!
- chopsueyar 16y ago
  I designed two counter-technologies to help people defend their personal space from unwanted electronic intrusion. Both devices were designed and prototyped with reference to the culture-jamming “Design Noir” philosophy. The first is a pair of glasses that darken whenever a television is in view. http://www.ladyada.net/pub/research.html http://www.ladyada.net/pub/research.html
  - bad_user 16y ago
    Yes, then offer those glasses for free; sponsored with ads shot straight in your retina.
16y ago

noonespecial 16y ago

EL films, coils, micro-controllers? MMMmm parts. The "toy surprise" just got a whole lot geekier.

klinquist 16y ago

I saw this at CES. Some of the more interesting applications the company had in their booth: * Charge your Tesla simply by driving it on top of a pad in your garage. They claim it's only 7% less efficient than the current plug charger. * Soup in a self-heating container. Place the container on your inductance charging pad, press a button on the container. The container itself contains a heating element.

eru 16y ago
If you just used a non-metallic container with a piece of metal inside, you can heat your soup via induction. Nothing fancy.
patrickk 16y ago
You can charge mobile devices by placing them on a pad. The Palm Pre had this out of the box. You can retrofit other phones like the iPhone to have this ability also.
- StavrosK 16y ago
  The Pre has inductive charging? That's very interesting... I wonder if I can buy a pad for my Desire HD.
  - sbierwagen 16y ago
    Kinda. The Touchstone charging system is an optional-- and not terribly cheap-- (US$50) accessory. I use it, it's pretty neat. There's an advantage beyond the obvious: the charging puck is always stuck to a surface[1], and the phone should always be stuck to the puck, (using magnets built into the back of the phone) so I tend to lose the phone a lot less often. The OS can also tell if you're using the induction charger, if you pull it off the puck while the phone's ringing, it'll automatically pick it up, and switch to speakerphone if you put it on the puck during a call. There's also disadvantages. It can't transmit as much power as the USB cable, and it's quite inefficient, getting fairly warm in use. If induction chargers ever became popular, presumably the hippies would get upset about the pointless waste of electricity. [1]: There's double sided foam tape on the bottom of the puck that's actually the first application I've ever seen of the gecko setae "superglue" that various tech sites have been banging on about for the last decade. It never loses its stickiness, but also gets dirty astonishingly easy.

buro9 16y ago

OK, I'm going to put my hand up here and say I don't know what I'm on about... but hear me out. Cereals have iron in them, literally iron shavings are put into cereals to ensure that the population receive a good portion of the RDA. Iron is particularly susceptible to induction (all metals are, but iron moreso), and iron when exposed to an electrical magnetic field then magnetic hysteresis is going to occur resulting in the iron in the cereals taking on a much stronger magnetic field than is currently natural. Has this kind of effect been investigated such that this kind of packaging is known not to have any negative effect on the consumers of magnetised food? Additionally, my second thought concerned the use of RFID for stock check, and whether a shelving system laced with induction systems is going to interfere with RFID in any way? Basically... I'm trying to invent reasons this might not appear on a shop-shelf soon. I really don't want to enter a supermarket and be presented with something that looks like Vegas.

jamesbressi 16y ago
I'm not sure why you got down voted but I bumped you up one. Fascinating question regarding iron! Whether a realistic issue or not, I love when someone thinks of something offf the wall that didn't cross my mind. As for the RFID question, without going into length, no interference should occur
arethuza 16y ago
"literally iron shavings are put into cereals" Are you sure about that, I would have thought that iron would be in a compound form, not in the metallic form. For example food supplements use things like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron%28II%29_sulfate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron%28II%29_sulfate
- buro9 16y ago
  Nope, it's just iron shavings: http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm07.asp http://www.mcrel.org/whelmers/whelm07.asp "The iron in the cereal is pure iron! Really! It is the same iron found in nails and automobiles. It is mixed in the cereal batter along with many other additives. The very tiny particles of iron quickly react with hydrochloric acid and other chemicals in the digestive tract, changing to a form easily absorbed by the body." That's a secondary school lesson guide for a science class in which the students extract the raw iron shavings from the cereal. It's a trivial process (you need a magnet, some water, and some crushed cereal - high iron content cereal obviously yields more dramatic results). The Times also has an educational piece on extracting iron from cereal: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article2499454.ece http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertai... You can see in this video the extracted iron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V265pGgsBnM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V265pGgsBnM View from 2:30.

hackermom 16y ago

I can't wait to have the AC EMR from the coils of the shelves mess with my cellphone and my VISA's magnetic strip etc. as I walk up and down the aisles to find my son's favorite cereal brand.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

One tic less annoying that the gumball machines that holler at you in the grocery store. We will need a logarithmic scale of ad intrusiveness?

mason55 16y ago

Do you think these boxes will have a cereal port?

j_baker 16y ago

Someone needs to hack together a cereal-box-b-gone, similar to tv-b-gone[1]. [1] http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php http://www.tvbgone.com/cfe_tvbg_main.php

bradleyland 16y ago

What a tremendous waste. In one corner of the mind-sphere, we have a renewed focus on green technology, and the other, we have glowing cereal boxes. One step forward, two steps back.