solar … parkbench?

[Lux49]

Hey EEV-Blog friends, I just registered and this is my first post ever.

So we are on vacation with our school right now, in Ireland. Yesterday we did a little trip to Howth near Dublin. And well, look what we found in the harbour area!


Seems like a park bench with wireless charging! Well a friend of mine put his phone on it and … nothing. Sure it supports wireless charging but that parkbench seems to be broken.
I find it so funny that people come up with funny ideas like this and even make it to a final product. Actually, I don't think this is as bad of an idea as solar roadways, if it would work, that is.

That being said, if anybody wants to investigate this further, please do so. I just don't have the time for it right now but I still wanted to share this with you guys. I'm really curious to find out more about it!
What are your opinions on this?

Greetings from Dublin!
Lucy

[john61ct]

PR stunt, past its use-by

[Seekonk]

Where are the connectors?  Those black things on the side?  That seems like the fail point for something like this out in the weather.

[ruffy91]

No connectors, it uses Qi charging.

[chris_leyson]

Thanks Lux49 for posting that, I've often wondered when QI would make a public appearance because it works well unlike dumb ultrasound or RF schemes, but there we are, linear thinking engineers understand the difference between near field and far field. I expect near field charging will appear in the not too distant future in a cafes, restaurants or pubs etc.

Webpage is here https://www.include.eu/steora/ makes sense to make it solar powered.

[paulc]

Great idea, needs to be implemented properly.
(Solar cells will be FREE from useless solar roads and walkways)