If you recall, after a while of using phones without wires, most of us stopped calling them “cordless.” If Watertown’s WiTricity (or another provider of wireless power-charging technology) succeeds, it’s probable the same will happen to electricity.
Rather than calling it “wireless” charging, “I am absolutely convinced it’s just going to be ‘charging’ in five years,” said WiTricity chief executive Alex Gruzen.
The former HP executive took the helm at WiTricity in April, and since then has been working to bring his firm’s technology to the attention of potential customers (namely, consumer electronics makers) along with the standards-setters for power charging.
WiTricity’s technology uses magnetic forces to safely transfer power through the air. The technology works by putting a coil in a charging station (such as a pad) and another coil inside a device, which allows for the transfer of power between the two.
For example, WiTricity’s technology can be used to make a section of a table a wireless charging hotspot, by placing a charging pad underneath the table.
Along with no longer having to worry about wires or the positioning of a device for charging, the technology can also be used to wirelessly charge multiple devices at once. The distance the power can travel depends on the configuration, but a typical distance is about six inches.
Crucial to WiTricity’s success will be “getting the [technology] standard locked down,” Gruzen said. “The consumer electronics space needs a standard, because the core thing that makes [new innovations] take off is interoperability.”
WiTricity is part of a group known as the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) that is pushing for wireless charging technology using magnetic resonance to be adopted (i.e., the type of technology used by WiTricity). Two other groups are pushing for different wireless charging technologies to become dominant (though one of the groups, the Power Matters Alliance, recently signed an agreement to make its technology “play nice” with A4WP’s, according to CNET).
If all goes well, though, WiTricity expects the first consumer products that can be charged using its technology to debut as early as CES in January. “It’s not theoretical anymore. People are building stuff” using WiTricity’s approach, Gruzen said, without offering specifics. “I think the momentum starts from CES.”
Kyle Alspach has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since 2005 and was one of the original staff writers at BetaBoston.
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