Wireless power for your office

Filed in archive Hardware on April 28, 2007

Thanks to mocoblog and House Hacker my attention was alerted to a new company claiming to be able to charge mobile phones and other low voltage devices without wires. Powercast, whose technology is in the realm of science fiction a few months ago, suggest that this is not really a new idea. We all take for granted radio, television, cell-phones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth -- all uses of RF (Radio Frequency). What Powercast has developed is a new use for RF: wireless power.

Wireless power is an old concept but there have been no technology breakthroughs that substantially changes the way we power items in an office. There are three companies in this field right now each with their own technology and view of how this is going to get done. There are technologies devised by Powercast, Ecoupled (Fulton Innovation) and Wildcharge. (You can see my research on this topic at its Google Notebook site "Wireless power for your office".

E-coupled has devised a system that can charge your devices when put onto a desk, or other flat spot that can be charged with current to transfer to your device whether it is your laptop, mobile telephone or iPod. Wildcharge, with its product the Wildcharger have a similar concept with its metal pad. Place any number of devices, such as mobile, iPod or Blackberry and these items can recharge without having to get out the specific charging devices.

It would seem that the spaghetti of power cords below your desk are not going to be replaced in any hurry by wireless power. Much of this technology is in its infancy and possibly will arrive in one shape or another over the next year or so before it will go mainstream.

However, wireless power does look like a good idea and if you want to at least get rid of the power chargers that littler your desk it may be worthwhile looking up this technology somewhere mid-year. The early devices may not be the best; my suggestion is that somewhere around the end of this year we might see these technologies start showing some real promise.