WiTricity Developing Automatic, Wireless Recharging

We all struggle with rechargers and there are hundreds of cords in every house where there is a TV, computer, phone or any other devices. And now, with the evolution of the smart home, this seems to be a problem that should disappear, and there are already solutions to that. If this technology will become reality, then we won’t even need to use solar gadgets anymore and rely on the Sun as our savior.

WiTricity Bringing Automatic and Wireless Charging in Our Homes

I can only imagine how awesome it would be if we could leave our smartphones, tablets just where they are, not having to bother at all about their battery life, about cords and all that. While being outside, we could use the sun light to recharge and in-doors, we could rely on wireless energy transfer. That would be possible by embedding a magnetic coil inside smartphones, laptops and other electronic devices that would generate a magnetic field, creating the physical process of magnetic induction.

Apparently, going by a simple logic, there haven’t been made too many discoveries in this field, because scientists and engineers couldn’t find a solution to make this magnetic field harmless for human beings. But, it seems that WiTricity managed to solve these issues and they are already in talks with big equipment manufacturers in order to deploy their technology inside various devices.
Apparently, what WiTricity tries to do in the form of a commercial product, has been discovered many years ago by Nikola Tesla. Also, WiTricity isn’t the single company that tries to make us cord-free. If you remember, at CES 2010, Haier presented a visionary TV that was automatically and wirelessly charging/recharging. Also, in 2010, we did a review of Powermat’s Wireless Charging System. That’s just an idea of what products WiTricity has in mind. The Powermat is just a small example of what we could see on the market quite soon.

The Cordless Life is Near, Say Goodbye to Wires And Batteries

This is all great, but how does it work, one could wonder. Have you ever used an electric toothbrush? While older models relied on the classic method of batteries, recent breakthroughs have made possible the automatic and wireless recharging:

While early NiCad battery toothbrushes used metal tabs to connect with the charging base, modern toothbrushes use contactless inductive charging: the brush unit and charger stand each contain a coil of wire; when placed in proximity, the powered coil from the stand transfers power by induction to the handle, charging the battery

The main difference from the wireless charging model of the electric toothbrush and the one that WiTricity is working on is the distance from the coils. In the case of the electric toothbrush, you will be able to use if you’ll stay in the near reach of the base. The automatic, wireless charging system to be developed by WiTricity plans to increase that distance to 3-4 feet. That may not seem that much, but it’s already an improvement.
For many of us, the first use of automatic and wireless recharging would be in our:

• smartphones
• tablets
• laptops
• computers
• television sets
• mp3 players 
• vacuume cleaners

But, it seems that WiTricity doesn’t set limits to that. They are also in talks for wireless charging of electric cars and even for heart pumps. Let’s hope that in the near future, cords will be only a distant memory and our homes will start looking more and more innovative with smart-placed electronic devices.