The company said Thursday it has a patent for designing devices so that batteries can be inserted either way, regardless of polarity. Dubbed InstaLoad, Microsoft said, the technology is now available for license to other companies.
Further, the company said it will offer the license royalty-free to companies making products for people with hearing, vision, or learning disabilities.
Battery maker Duracell and flashlight manufacturer AE Light are among the first companies to license the technology, Microsoft said.
I am not sure how this could possibly work. Maybe with diodes and transistors to switch polarity of the batteries to another circuit. You would need four different circuits and it would complicate the power supply.
Now that is going to make ole bill a ton of money
Seems like a pretty logical thing to design (and patent of course). The whole thing could be incorporated into a single IC at low cost and would be a great boon for those of us who have devices where the polarity is not clearly marked, forcing us to use ‘the force’ for correct insertion.
Simple enough to implement, but wasteful at the same time due to inherent inefficiencies.
It should be OK for low drain devices that tend to be used by dumbasses.
I would think the circuitry would be too simple to be patentable and has been done before. So it should be ‘royalty’ free.
It ain’t like they’re really ‘giving’ anything away.
Nice scum bag PR twist though.
Microsoft could trademark the name “instaload” if they want, but I’m pretty sure Nikola Tesla’s patent for the same thing has long expired.
Great, just what everyone needs, more battery types to have to buy and keep around the house.
#1 it would be easy to do with diodes yes. A lot like how a rectifier works when converting AC to DC.
I’m surprised no one has developed this a long time ago. And Microsoft of all companies?
#6 say what?
Holy crap, I’ve been waiting years for someone to finally do this! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve helped my parents or other non-technical people deal with the batteries on some kind of device that didn’t work because they put the batteries in wrong.
Benjamin, the circuitry to do this would be very simple.
Wait, they reinvented the diode?
Darwin and human evolution would be better served by batteries that explode into a toxic cloud when placed in backwards.
#12 Exactly!
And inductive coupling for charging devices. Down with plug in cords.
Did you guys also know that most modern Ethernet ports no longer care about the wiring configuration? You don’t need a crossover versus normal ethernet cable. This sure makes networking easier now.
Since the polarity switching would need to be done independently for each cell, diodes would loose too much voltage to be efficient. Four MOSFETs and a bit of circuitry for each cell would be one way to do this effectively. The reason it wasn’t done sooner is because there are simpler ways to solve the problem. Just make the battery polarity markings clear and shape the contacts so it is obvious what direction the batteries go in. You don’t always have to chose the most complex solution to a problem.
Microsoft also makes great mice. Yup, mice and battery receptacles – welcome to Steve Ballmer’s America.
This will just increase the number of cells needed. Each diode like device, in a battery circuit wastes about half a volt. So even if it only manages to be one diode per cell. That’s a third of the power wasted, to account for people too addled (or near-sighted) to get the batteries in the right way. So instead of some device needing only two cells, it would need three, shoved in any old way. And forget hearing aids having this. They’re already down to single cells.
Why not just make a battery pack or cell that can’t be put in wrong? And put an end to designing battery holes, for AA and AAA batteries. It’s a real pain to end up having one cell short of whatever you need. Or one of them has gone dead.
This Microsoft patent just helps keep on life support, ancient battery technology of the 20th century, that should have died long ago. Now that’s real forward thinking. NOT!
What’s next, a way to make underwear wearable either inside or outside of pants? How about a friggin ATM card that doesn’t need to go in the right way! Those thing never have an arrow or anything, to tell you different. And dollar bill readers are picky about George’s head being the right way around, too. I personally have to deal with that, more often, than what way batteries go in. Microsoft’s got nothing to brag about.
Not teaching basic electronics in schools over there in the USA any more? It is called a bridge-rectifier, a square assemblage of silicon diodes. It is in every mains powered electronic device on the planet, has been since 1905. The problem with this patent is that there is a prior-art, and it reduces the available battery voltage by 0.7 volts. Unless they’re intending to patent Germanium.
Apparently I was thinking they had come up with a clever circuit to do this. I was wrong. This could have been done 100 years ago.
The battery technology does not require any special circuitry. “At one end of the battery, the battery interfaces with either the positive contacts(light gray) or the negative contacts (black). The battery interfaces with the opposite contact at its other end. When coupled with PCB traces, proper power polarity is automatically delivered to the device,” Microsoft said.
I’ll bet Microsoft has secretly patented the diode. Wait, I shouldn’t say that. They’ll try it!
As noted, inline diodes cause a loss of voltage: about 0.6V for silicon diodes, less for germanium. There will be some loss of power, depending on the current draw of the device, which might be acceptable. But I suspect that there may be relays involved.
Read the full article, it’s short:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20009418-56.html?tag=mncol
It’s a mechanical solution, no diodes, no FETs, no relays.
From the article:
“A center contact at the top supports a positive charge, while the wider bottom contact supports negative polarity.”
Apparently it relies on the “bump” on the positive end to keep the cell from touching both terminals.
This will add a little cost and complexity, but not much, maybe 35 cents per cell. Plus the license fee, of course.
I’m sure I speak for the majority of people here.
WHY?!?!??