The growth of mobile technology is all about convenience. Technology has certainly made the chores of life easier in the past few decades, but one necessary inconvenient evil of all mobile devices is still the bane of my existence – electricity.
Let’s face it, even the fanciest mobile phones are a pain to charge, and they run out of battery too quickly. What’s a 21st century gadget geek to do? Cue a generic sci-fi theme song… WiTricity is said to be making its grand debut at CES this year. Also known as wireless electricity, the technology may create “electricity hotspots” in public places.
Companies like Sunnyvale, Calif-based PowerBeam use lasers to generate about 1.5 watts of power to an area around 10 metres. That’s not enough to power a laptop, but it is enough to power digital picture frame, speaker, or maybe even a mobile device. So in case you were worrying about battery life effecting your opportunity to reach your target audience, rejoice that one day mobile users won’t have to think twice about charging up their mobile phone.
PowerBeam competitors Witricity and Powercast aren’t transmitting electricity as far as PowerBeam is trying to do. Other companies in the wireless electricity space include Powermat, eCoupled, WiPower and WildCharge. Expect one electrifiying experience at CES this year, as many of these companies are scheduled to show off their wireless electricity 1.0 accomplishments.
