A Wireless Camera Powered By Fluorescent Lights
By Andrew Liszewski
NEC will be showing off a new wireless camera at iExpo2007 in Tokyo this week that actually draws its power from a fluorescent bulb. A special ring-shaped component that relies on electromagnetic induction is slid onto the bulb and power is obtained from the magnetic field generated by the light’s AC source.
Now I’m not sure if this technique ends up causing the bulb to draw more power, but the real advantage is being able to install a camera where it would otherwise be difficult to run power cables to. NEC expects the cameras to be used in office settings for checking up on employees (I’m sure that will go over well) but when you consider that almost every store in the country uses fluorescent bulbs, it also becomes a cheaper way to setup a security system.
At the moment the camera only supports VGA resolutions (640×480) but I assume that’s not a limitation imposed by the way it’s powered. What’s not clear though is whether or not a security system based on this technology can be defeated by simply turning off the lights.
[ NEC Develops Wireless Camera Powered by Fluorescent Light ] VIA [ EcoGeek ]
Related Tags: Digital Cameras, Wireless
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Comments [4]
… Its my understanding that even fluorescent bulbs use power, so why wouldnt you just draw from its wiring? Its a neat concept, but yeah, not very advantageous.
Posted 9:10 am on December 3rd, 2007Hi there This week on Wednesday I was looking all over the web to find some interesting information about . Somehow it got me here to your A Wireless Camera Powered By Fluorescent Lights post, which is very nice written! I like it. Keep posting. Till soon!
Posted 2:52 pm on December 5th, 2007nice idia about the Fluorescent Lights
Posted 7:12 pm on March 21st, 2008I was searching for \’\’ at google and got this your post (\’A Wireless Camera Powered By Fluorescent Lights\’) in search results. Not very relevant result, but still interesting to read
Posted 11:01 am on May 9th, 2008