Apple has offered its own wireless charging technology for mobile devices and computer accessories.
To recharge them, it is necessary that the devices are placed in a “virtual charging zone”, the radius of which is up to a meter.Apple has come up with a “real and practical” way to wirelessly charge mobile devices, AppleInsider reports, citing a patent application.
This application, titled “The Use of wireless Energy in a Local Computing Environment,” was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on November 29, 2012. It was submitted to the bureau in November 2010.
The inventors proposed using the so-called “near-field magnetic resonance” to transmit energy when the transmitting device is a “resonator” and the receiving device operates at the frequency of this resonator, receiving energy.
The resonator can be either an independent device or a USB adapter, or a desktop computer or laptop. Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, as well as computer accessories – keyboard, mouse – should be located at a distance of no more than one meter from the resonator, in the so-called “virtual charging zone”. Thus, the practicality of the technology lies in the fact that the devices do not need to be placed on special devices to charge them, they can be at a comfortable distance from the energy source for the user.
At the same time, mobile devices and accessories themselves can play the role of repeaters. For example, if the smartphone is far from the resonator, then it can be charged via the keyboard. To connect devices to the resonator, it is proposed to use standard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless communication technologies.
In addition to Apple, Intel is showing interest in wireless power transmission. Companies are developing promising technologies together. For example, the Thunderbolt high-speed wired data transmission standard is their joint development.
At the end of October, a group of interested companies has created an alliance, the purpose of which will be the standardization of wireless energy transmission technology. “The new flexible specification,” as stated by representatives of the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), “will allow consumers to charge from mobile devices on a variety of compatible surfaces.”
Some devices have already appeared on the market, for example, Nokia Lumia 920, which support the Qi wireless power transmission standard developed by the Wireless Power Consortium in 2010.