Go eco, get ethical!
Techno Talk
Mark Nelson
These days, we hear a lot about ‘mindfulness’, which according to one website is the basic human
ability to be fully aware of where we are and what we’re doing. The website doesn’t mention behaving
responsibly or paying attention to what’s going on around us, but maybe if more people did this, the
world would be a better place.
O
ne company that clearly has
awareness is Tesco, whose slogan
‘Every little helps’ expresses the
company’s approach to sustainability
when you shop at their stores. Thinking
about electronics, another company to
which the slogan could equally apply is
Samsung Electronics, whose PlanetFirst
eco-management system offers customers environmentally conscious solutions
that lead the way to a sustainable future.
At this year’s CES trade show in Las
Vegas, billed as, ‘the most influential tech
event in the world,’ Samsung launched
its upgraded Eco Remote controller for
television sets and other home appliances. When previewed last year, it was a
solar-powered device that the manufacturer estimated could prevent 99,000,000
AAA batteries going to landfill over the
next seven years. This year’s version can
additionally recharge without daylight
by harvesting energy from your domestic
Wi-Fi router at distances of up to 40m.
Battery-free but not pointless
A spokesperson for Samsung declared
that whether it’s a bright and sunny
day or the middle of the night, the battery stays fully charged by collecting
radio waves from Wi-Fi networks and
converting them to energy. ‘There is no
lithium-ion battery in the remote,’ continued the representative. ‘What it does
have is a capacitor that can store small
amounts of energy.’
Endorsing the practicality of the principle, Gus Cheng Zhang, a lecturer in
power electronics at the University of
Manchester, explained that most of
the energy radiated by Wi-Fi routers
was usually wasted, absorbed by metallic surfaces, creating eddy currents
and then turned into heat. He told New
Scientist magazine: ‘It’s definitely a brilliant idea, and a very good example of
energy harvesting. You have a router that
is emitting radio frequency signals that’s
rated at approximately 1W. This is limited by regulations and that’s mostly just
concerns about safety. There is no technical limitation to how much power can
be transmitted from the router to a device.’ He concluded that other practical
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applications existed for the technology
in certain niches, although solar power
offered similar output for devices with
low power needs at less cost.
Eco and ethics
Ecology, environmental sustainability
and ethics are all closely interrelated, but
exactly how is a matter of debate. Some
people argue that a sense of duty to nature may be beneficial, but it’s hardly a
reliable way to achieve sustainability. On
the other hand, the fact that Amazon now
offers its Amazon Renewed range of refurbished, tested and guaranteed products
is definitely a step in the right direction.
Another sign of progress was the staging of the first World Ethical Electronics
Forum (WEEF) in Germany last year, offering global innovators in electronics an
open discussion about ethics and sustainable development goals (SDGs). These are
early days and the second WEEF to be
held in November should present a far
clearer identification of best practice in
ethical electronics and provide answers
to questions such as whether individual designers, programmers and makers
have an ethical responsibility to use
their skills and components in positive
ways. Also, should ethics play a role in
how multinational electronics-focused
corporations do business?
Let’s loosen licensing
Friendlier licensing was one of the
subjects discussed at last year’s WEEF
conference and caught my eye as
something highly relevant to practical
electronicists like us. The German software developer Segger Microcontroller
chaired a discussion on the novel subject of ‘friendly licensing’, which allows
anyone to use high-end software free
of charge for non-commercial use and
for testing purposes. Segger’s marketing manager Frank Riemenschneider
briefed Elektronik Praxis magazine on
why and how this should work, saying:
‘The more that young people have the
opportunity to develop innovative and
energy-saving devices, the sooner we
will achieve global climate-neutrality.
To make the world a better place, we
need knowhow for forward-looking projects. This is especially true for software
needed for training and tinkerers alike.
‘Unfortunately, not all schools and
universities in the world – and not all
students or simply curious, technically
interested young people – can afford expensive software that they would need for
a good education. For these people, we
have introduced our Friendly Licensing
model, so that everyone can learn with
state-of-the-art software packages, regardless of their financial circumstances.
‘For non-commercial use or evaluation purposes, no matter who you are,
you can use the software free of charge
under this licence. Non-commercial
use means that you use the software
for teaching, learning, studying or for
projects that have no commercial background, and evaluation means that you
try out the software for possible future
use. In practice, students, tutors, teachers
or individuals can use our software in
universities, colleges, non-profit organisations or at home. Hobbyists can use it
for projects, courses and self-education.’
Benefits all round
Do note that Segger’s software is not
shareware, trialware or demoware. You
might perhaps call it ‘fairware’, except
that several businesses and organisations
have already grabbed the name. The software company retains full copyright of
its product and professional users must
still pay to use it. But students and hobbyists, who could not afford to buy the
programs, get to use it for nothing.
Another company that has adopted
this model is Blackmagicdesign, whose
Davinci Resolve video and audio postproduction software is used both on
Hollywood feature films such as Deadpool
2, La La Land, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
and X-Men: Apocalypse, as well as on
television shows such as The Muppets,
Game of Thrones and Modern Family.
All of these users pay for the commercial edition, while more than two million
non-professionals around the world use
the free edition, which has slightly reduced functionality. Friendly licensing
really does work!
Practical Electronics | April | 2022
