Chargers are one of the banes of being a tech dork. It’s a necessary evil, but they’re a pain in the ass to keep track of. That goes doubly if you travel a lot. I really can’t even begin to express how many chargers I’ve left in anonymous hotel rooms, never to be seen again. And what woe there is when you discover your charger missing miles away from home as your phone hangs on its last battery bar or your laptop gurgles for power. But a new device out of Arizona aims to change all of that.
WildCharge approaches the charging dilemma somewhat differently. Rather than using multiples chargers for all of your devices, it utilizes a single, lightweight charger. What’s more, it’s a charger like no other.
As you can see in these preliminary images (and by preliminary I mean, this in no way resembles the production model, it’s just to give you an idea of how the process works), the WildCharge is just a plate-like accessory. Devices rest on top of it and charge through osmosis.
“Charging and powering a device is now as simple as placing it on a table,” says WildCharge President Izhar Matzkevich. “Multiple devices with varying power needs can be placed anywhere and at any orientation on the WildCharger, all receiving full, uninterrupted power as if plugged directly to the wall.”
The slight catch is that devices will need to be equipped with something in the realm of a special faceplate to allow the exchange to take place, but it’s still a much easier solution. Rather than having to tote around a collection of chargers, you can simply carry the WildCharge and your mobile devices equipped with the special charging adapters.
WildCharge, Inc. intends its charger to be available in Q1 of 2007. We’ll keep you posted as this one develops further.
EDIT: So I’ve been called on using “osmosis,” and you guys are right, it most definitely doesn’t charge through osmosis. The correct term is “induction.” Thanks for being vigilant to my stupidity.
Osmosis = Inductive?
I cannot wait for technologies such as this are brought to market in a cheap, effective way. iGo chargers with multiple tips somewhat bridges the gap, but being able to fully forego laptop bricks and cell phone chargers is a wonderful idea.
Bring it on.
Now.
I’ll take your hotel scenario one step further. Wouldn’t it be great if every hotel room had this on the desk in the room? Airplane tray tables, your center console in your car, your desk at work?
Or just better batteries :)
I’m really curious as to how this works? The website says there is no “electromagnetic or any form of radiation” but I’m assuming an inductive field would require some sort of magnetic field, this is physics 135-2. Another question I have is how many devices could this handle at once?
Anyways, pretty sweet.
wow, that’s badass. i’d like to carpet a room with that those and use them as shelf liners in the entertainment center, how cool would that be.
blake, there’s a space in your link [http://%20www.wildcharge.com/]
I was talking about this over a year ago. This is one really slow project. Wake me up when we go wireless.
that is the COOLEST THIN i have ever seen, if its ever mass produced (unless it is already and i dont know) it’d definately buy one
Sounds like a rip-off of (UK company) Spashpower’s inductive charging pad. They’ve been around since 2001 (compared to Wild Charge’s 2005).
Umm I’d like to point out that whoever wrote that this device charges through osmosis is an idiot. Osmosis is the diffusion of water not electricity… lol. I think they mean it charges through diffusion because I sure as hell don’t want water diffusing into my laptop.
d00fy. Wireless transmission of energy is actually being studied. If you ever played SimCity 2000, one of the powerplant options was a giant microwave dish which picked up microwave beams sent down from a collector up in space. However, this is a very fairy tale dream right now, as microwave beams have the tendency to fry things, whether it be a bird, plane, or you.
In addition, this is actually wireless transmission of energy, simply transforming an electric energy counded as a current, into a magnetic field, then back into electric energy/current in your battery. This could be expanded into an even great degree of freedom if you had huge currents available to you, such as those in the power lines, and then you might be able to charge things without actually touching the powerpad.
that is amazing. that would be great for a glove box.
I want one. Now.
What michael wants, michael gets.
er, and I want one too kthanks
This would be fantastic. Would really clear up the wire mess under the table. :)
And I do agree with Peter, great idea if some hotel chain can fit that into all their rooms. Beats carrying a phone charger, a laptop charger, a camera charger, an ipod charger etc etc.
And imagine pairing this with the new 40%-efficiency solar panels… limitless energy!
http://www.energy.gov/news/4503.htm
I’m a bit skeptic frankly. Just how is this thing supposed to work? We’re talking about complicated microelectronics here; the idea behind induction is that it moves electric charges via a magnetic field as described y the Lorentz Equation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorentz_equation or a Physics textbook). How would a system “know” to move charge one terminal to another in a battery, and not, say, fry a processor?
@Ron,
you’re right to be skeptical, because this article doesn’t talk about having an inductor to “catch” the magnetic flux and produce a current that will charge the battery, but there is one, as is described on splash power’s website:
http://www.splashpower.com/products/devices.html
so it just works by having an indeuctor that grabs the magnetic flux and produces a current…
Дайте два! )
I was unaware of the Faceplate Empire!
I sure wish I could charge by osmosis!
And don’t forget AfroMan’s inductively-coupled mouse-charging mousepad.
http://www.afrotechmods.com/cheap/arnoldpad/arnoldpad.htm
Isn’t is dangerous what if you touch the plate? Your body is conductive.
How much of an efficiency loss does this device add? Ie: will all the suckers buying this “cool” charger now be paying 50% more to charge things?
I’m gonna hold off till we get cold fusion to power our handheld devices.
In the wildcharge technology there is nothing related to electromagnetic waves and stories of making Tesla proud !!.It is just the standard marketing principle of creating interest by confusion.
It is pure conductive technology >>>> the device needs to be adapted with conductive material before it is put on the pad to charge.
Mike is correct. I have seen this in person. It is 100% conductive thru good old metal contacts. In the demo I saw both a laptop and a cellphone where being charged. And it was safe to touch. This is a cool charging method that is pretty safe. If you don’t believe me, fly to Las Vegas to attend CES (start Jan 7th) and see for yourself.
So what if it touches or say my laptop touches something else conductive?
I’ve seen this product and it is totally amazing. It’s safe, cheap and works like a charm. Imagine the chargers as standard equipment on airplane trays, coffee shop table tops, hotels, cars, etc. - we’ll never be out of juice and won’t have to carry around any chargers!
Did you see it on the Today show today? Check out http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=e7f5124c-381a-4fe9-8d5d-a810d04e61c4&p=hotvideo_m_edpicks&t=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/&fg=
online propecia.
Much ado about nothing, as always! Let’s drop a few paper clips upon the pad to see whether it continues to work.
Whoa….check out this page…hmmm, and I thought this was only for the kids
when is it comin out?
Nice page. It’s good to have kids who can use this medium to find you
im gonna get a wldcharge itz a really nice invention
This technology is not new its just another type of connection
the enable you do to your device is simple putting on a connector interface to your device there is no induction involved it is still mechnical connection
useing tiny little terminals that come into contact with the shinny metal strips
there is no induction this is a LIE it still uses wires no tesla is not proud of you
Yours truly
Paul Barnett
It’s not an magnetic field at all, the metal plates you can see in the pictures are just powered alternating with a DC voltage, and the backplates for mobile phones have “pins” that touch these terminals.
The pins are arranged so that you can not create a short-circuit by rotating the mobile phone.
Not exactly what Tesla had in mind…
can any body tell me how the wildcharge pad works i need the circuit diagram is there any website that i can get some information and circuit diagram regarding wireless charger for laptops thanks