Wireless Power Delivery in a Fluid Environment

A system includes a reservoir containing a fluid, one or more objects in physical contact with the fluid, each of the one or more objects having a respective induction coil embedded therein, at least one conductive coil…

A system includes a reservoir containing a fluid, one or more objects in physical contact with the fluid, each of the one or more objects having a respective induction coil embedded therein, at least one conductive coil in the reservoir, and a control device having a hardware processor and a memory storing a control application. The hardware processor is configured to execute the control application to receive an input to initiate an activity using the one or more objects and provide, in response to receiving the input, a first electric current in the at least one conductive coil. Wherein each of the one or more objects is powered by a respective second electric current generated in the respective induction coil of each of the one or more objects, in response to the first electric current, to perform the activity.

BACKGROUND

The enjoyment of visitors to water-based attractions such as fountains and artificial lagoons, for example, can be enhanced by the presence of objects such as self-propelled watercraft and submergible synthetic fish and other aquatic lifeforms that appear to be bioluminescent. Safely providing the power required to enable those objects to move or glow has presented a challenge, particularly in environments in which many objects are to be in use and conventional solutions fail to scale adequately.

For example, one approach to producing moving light effects in water involves enclosing a light source powered by a small coin or button battery in a ping pong ball type object. This approach can result in a pleasing visual effect when many such objects are used together, but because the power is inside each object and must typically be manually turned on, it is very labor intensive to do so, while the batteries used in this approach have finite life and require periodic replacement.

Another existing approach to powering objects in water is to introduce live alternating current (A/C) electricity directly into the water. However, this approach requires the objects receiving the electric power to have exposed metal leads, and due to significant safety concerns, can only realistically be implemented at a small scale in carefully controlled environments. Consequently, there remains a need in the art for a safe and scalable solution for delivering power to