The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas saw the launch of two US companies with technology to recharge equipment without having to plug them in, following in the footsteps of a UK company, Splashpower.
Arizona-based start-up WildCharge has developed a system with a metal plate that equipment can sit on and be recharged. Splashpower has been working on the similar SplashPad for the last three years, working with battery and equipment makers to get the power antenna and electronics into the equipment. It holds a basic patent on tis approach to charging equipment.
The WildCharger similarly recharges equipment by placing it on a metallic pad, a version of technology from a company called MobileWise several years ago. Unlike the SplashPad, which his targetting handheld equipment in the 3-10W range, the WildCharger is a 90-watt system to handle laptops as well.
Fulton Innovation has developed a similar technology called eCouple using the same adaptive inductive coupling technology.
Critically, it has signed up equipment makers such as Motorola, Mobility Electronics, Visteon and others to back it as a wireless power standard, but this also has led to the first product being developed by car sub-system supplier Visteon: a car cup holder that recharges devices set inside it using eCoupled's induction process via the 12V cigarette ighter.
The idea, like the Wildcharger and the SplashPad, is to have a ‘hot spot’ where you set down your handheld to charge.
The first version of the cup holder will be available this summer.
For more information, visit www.splashpower.comwww.ecoupled.comwildcharge.com
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