Microsoft’s New Battery Tech Makes +/- Problems Old News
It's not everyday that a commodity like the battery gets a totally new twist put upon it, so when Microsoft introduced its Instaload technology in a press release today, it was hard to not sit up and pay attention.
For decades, mankind has been shackled by the need to differentiate between the positive and negative sides, or terminals, of the battery. Whether it be for a flashlight, remote control, toy car, or even for a charger, it has always been necessary too look at the battery tray, figure out which end of the battery needs to go in first, and load it up. If you put a battery in backwards, whatever you are trying to use will invariably not work, and if you are trying to load a battery into a charger and do it incorrectly, you risk damaging the battery permanently. To most people, this is a minor nuisance, but in some industries and applications, this sort of annoyance can become a big problem, or even a risk.
Microsoft's InstaLoad technology hopes to solve all these problems by allowing you to stick a battery in however you want. Backwards, forwards, positive terminal up, negative terminal up - a battery that uses this new tech will work, regardless of its orientation. It will work for both disposable and rechargeable batteries, and for CR123, AA, AAA, C or D batteries.
Microsoft is confident that this technology will be incredibly useful to humanity, to the point that they are offering it without royalties.
As to it's possible applications, they think that it will be most useful for "...devices that require frequent battery swap-outs, are used in less-than-ideal environments or use several batteries. Industries that could greatly benefit from this type of timesaving technology based on their environments include law enforcement, military, construction, outdoor sporting and camping."
Source: Engadget
