Lesson plan

Splashpower

Splashpower Ltd. was a United Kingdom-based company founded in June 2001. It had been attempting to develop technology for wireless charging of portable devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, mp3 players and cameras. Their system worked through electromagnetic induction, adding a free positioning induction loop (at the "SplashPad") to the conventional fix induction loop at the wallplug (used to shift between AC and DC currents). According to the company's claims, rechargeable devices equipped with a small SplashModule were placed upon a mousepad-sized SplashPad and had their batteries recharged at a normal rate. A Splashpower system was featured on Tomorrow's World (a popular science/IT programme from the BBC) some years ago, where it was given praise and demonstrated a London cafe setting where be-suited executive types were able to charge their phones and PDAs whilst having a power lunch. the company had yet to make an announcement as to when products would be commercially available or at what price. Some technical details of the Splashpower technology can be found in US patent 6,906,495 (available also from the USPTO).…

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Article summary

Splashpower Ltd. was a United Kingdom-based company founded in June 2001. It had been attempting to develop technology for wireless charging of portable devices such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, mp3 players and cameras. Their system worked through electromagnetic induction, adding a free positioning induction loop (at the "SplashPad") to the conventional fix induction loop at the wallplug (used to shift between AC and DC currents). According to the company's claims, rechargeable devices equipped with a small SplashModule were placed upon a mousepad-sized SplashPad and had their batteries recharged at a normal rate. A Splashpower system was featured on Tomorrow's World (a popular science/IT programme from the BBC) some years ago, where it was given praise and demonstrated a London cafe setting where be-suited executive types were able to charge their phones and PDAs whilst having a power lunch. the company had yet to make an announcement as to when products would be commercially available or at what price. Some technical details of the Splashpower technology can be found in US patent 6,906,495 (available also from the USPTO).…

Key claims

  1. date of foundation: 2001 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. The record states that the date of foundation is "2001". What evidence would count against this claim?
  3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

  1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1301427802

Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.