Intel Corporation is patenting a solution which uses light to sense when a laptop computer casing is getting too hot, and automatically “throttles back” the power, NewScientist reports.
“Since heating is uneven inside a laptop, with hot spots occurring near power-hungry components, ordinary thermometers are an unreliable way to determine whether someone is risking a scorched lap. Instead, Intel reckons a simple light sensor could provide a much better early warning system,†the report says.
NewScientist explains that Intel’s overheating prevention technology features the inside skin of a laptop coated with a thermochromic material (one that changes color in response to temperature). A lamp inside the chassis then continually illuminates this material and a sensor measures the color of the reflected light – from cold green to warm red. This provides a temperature reading for the part in direct contact with the user’s lap. The sensor closely monitors any change and, when it starts getting too warm, software activates a fan to cool things down. At a higher temperature threshold the processing speed of the computer’s main chip is also throttled back to reduce heating, Intel’s patent application says.
