Here’s an interesting demonstration of a new wirless charging system by Hatem Zeine, founder and CEO of Redmond Washington company Ossia, at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF conference in San Francisco earlier this month.
Zeine says that his system can deliver 1 W of charging power wirelessly over a radius of 30 feet — enough to charge a wide away of electronic devices, and can send its wireless power through walls and around corners (similar to WiFi). The consumer transmitter is projected to cost around $100 and it works with receivers that are small enough to fit inside electronic devices. The system is designed to be able to work with as many types of products as possible, and Ossia is planning to work with product manufacturers so they can install their devices into their products.
Zeine says his products are in “advanced stages of FCC certification”.
This kind of system could certainly be an advance on the use of wired chargers that most of us rely on for our mobile electronics, and I can see this becoming very popular with businesses and households around the world if it works as advertised here. No mention from the CEO how much power is consumed by the transmitter — but many consumers would probably pay for the convenience factor, even if they had to pay more for powering their devices.
An interesting analysis from the Gizmag site looks into the technical aspects of the technology and can be read here.