System and method for electrical charge transfer across a conductive medium

摘要

A method for supplying power to detected devices coupled to a conductive backplane includes: supplying a plurality of sensing signals at a plurality of transmit impedance values to the conductive backplane; analyzing a plurality of return signals received from the conductive backplane, the return signals corresponding to the sensing signals; detecting the presence of a sink device coupled to the conductive backplane based on the analyzed return signals; and supplying power from a power supply to the sink device via the conductive backplane after detecting the presence of the sink device.

主权项

1. An apparatus for supplying power to a plurality of devices comprising:
a conductive backplane comprising a conductive metal or conductive textile, wherein each of said plurality of devices are coupled to the conductive backplane via a respective conductive pathway; sensing circuitry comprising a signal generator and a signal detector, the sensing circuitry coupled to the conductive backplane; a power supply coupled to the conductive backplane; and a controller circuit including a memory configured to:
store information about power requirements of each of the plurality of devices in the memory;control the signal generator to supply a plurality of sensing signals at a plurality of transmit impedance values to the conductive backplane;analyze a plurality of return signals detected by the signal detector, the return signals corresponding to the sensing signals;detect, based on the analyzed return signals, the presence of a sink device and its conductive pathway and identify said detected sink device, coupled to the conductive backplane;retrieve the stored power requirements for the detected and identified sink device; andcontrol the power supply to supply power according to the retrieved power requirements to the detected and identified sink device via its conductive pathway.