Belkin Pitstop: Get a Charge from a Lamp
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.23.06
Pitstop is an inductive charging system integrated into an attractive floor lamp. When it popped up on Yanko, we were surprised; It is credited to the Belkin Innovation Design Group, and the link takes you to the site of Belkin, a well-known manufacturer of electronic accessories. No sign of it appears on their site. A little digging and we find that it is yet another entry in a DesignBoom competition called The Skin of Corian by a clever group (Kenneth Mori + Mitchell Suckle + Oliver Duncan Seil, Thorben Neu, David Kleeman, Yoko Iida, Folk Sirichai, Ernesto Quinteros + Belkin Innovation Design Group) who understand that in the future, electronics will be invisible and part of the architectural fabric.
"Pitstop is a future in-home power recharging station for portable electronic devices. It is comprised of 2 systems, an inductive charging surface made from Corian and a methanol-based, fuel cell pump. We are anticipating there will be an inductive charging and fuel cell standards by 2020, which all companies will adopt. This will enable users to simply place electronic devices on the Corian tray to recharge or refill with fuel. Corian is an excellent non-conductive material, perfect for inductive charging. The Corian tray is machined in two parts allowing room in between for the inductive coil components. The design intent of Pitstop is to blend consumer electronic power needs with home furnishings. The product functions as a table surface to park devices when coming home. The lamp not only offers light but can also serve as a status indicator for the devices." ::Pitstop
