Canon Patent Outlines Plans to Power Electronic Equipment With Fuel Cells

Canon has applied for a patent to power electronic equipment with fuel cells. Other companies have looked at using fuel cells replace batteries in electronic devices from laptop computers to mobile phones but the Canon patent takes things a step further.

The Canon plan is to use the fuel cell to power not only the primary piece of equipment but also the peripheral items. An example of this is an SLR camera with a single power source that also provides power to attached items like an external flash unit.

The abstract of the Canon patent states, "Provided is an electronic equipment system having fuel cells which enables simplification of the system and improvement of power generation efficiency. The electronic equipment system includes an electronic equipment body, a connection device connected to the electronic equipment body, independent power generation cells each disposed to the electronic equipment body and to the connection device, and a fuel storage vessel disposed to the electronic equipment body, in which fuel from the fuel storage vessel is suppliable to each of the independent power generation cells."