While current wireless charging has its benefits, that just moves the visible wire from the device to the charging pad. The long-term dream is long-distance invisible wireless power transmission, and a new video demonstrates that we can take a big step closer to that today.
The setup embeds a large charging loop beneath the desk itself, enabling a keyboard, mouse, speakers – and even a monitor – to be powered without a cable or charging pad in sight …
It looks too good to be true, but DIY Perks’s Matt has an impressive background of pulling off some crazy DIY projects, and showing his working, so I absolutely believe this is the real deal.
The kit he uses is from a company called Etherdyne Technologies Inc, and is specifically designed to allow people to create prototypes.
Designed for R&D teams to explore wire-free power, our Eval Kit provides everything you need to jump-start innovation. It includes a transmitter with a flexible wire loop that can be embedded into a surface to create a Wire-Free Power Zone. Alongside, you’ll find a variety of receivers in different shapes, sizes, and specifications that can be integrated into your devices, enabling them to receive power wirelessly.
With ETI’s Eval Kit, your team can easily experiment, prototype, and experience the magic of our wire-free power solutions. See first hand how our technology can reduce the need for batteries, eliminate power cords, and open new possibilities for design.
To be clear, the system isn’t the radio-based wide-area wireless charging we’re all dreaming of, where we can blanket an entire room with Wi-Fi-like signals that can power anything in it. For now, at least, the microwave-level power output needed to make that work isn’t compatible with, you know, not cooking the people in the room.
Instead, the tech is similar to that of existing charging pads, but enables a large loop that can charge all the devices within it. What Matt has done is to embed that loop beneath a desk in order to power everything on his desk.
The 3D wireless power system can cover a very large area defined by the perimeter of a single length of wire. This wire generates a magnetic field in exactly the same way as the charging pad, only it flips its polarity significantly more rapidly – millions of times per second rather than thousands.
The technology also relies on being precisely tuned to resonate at this transmission frequency, allowing power to be efficiently transferred to devices anywhere within the power dome at tightly controlled power levels to make it safe for general use. It’s wireless power that just works.
Now this particular unit has been designed to be embedded within a desktop, so that’s exactly what [I’ve done] with mine.
I wasn’t blown away by the keyboard and mouse – I’ve seen that done before, and these are exactly the sort of low-power devices we can currently power through wide-area RF signals. But the speakers, and most especially the monitor is just a whole other level!
The video (below) makes for both fascinating and exciting viewing.
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Image: DIY Perks
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