Motorola and GuRu wireless, a company working on remote (over the air) charging solutions for smart devices, announced the start of a partnership yesterday in a press release joint. This initiative sees Motorola following in the footsteps of Xiaomi, which recently unveiled a concept for remote charging.
GuRu wireless markets itself as a “global leader in customizable remote power solutions.” The company was founded in 2017 by a team of scientists and engineers from Caltech, with the goal of bringing “energy everywhere like WiFi.”
The company has developed a system that charges devices remotely without the need to place them on any charging base, using millimeter wave (mmWave) integrated circuits.
Remote charging: the range increases more and more
The company says its RF Lensing solutions allow it to charge devices even at a distance of more than 9 meters (30 feet) with a single transmitter. The system will be able to charge phones between 5W and 10W.
While Motorola hasn't revealed any details about a remote charging phone, this new partnership will undoubtedly lead to a concept that will be shown soon.
Remote charging: one of Tesla's "legacies"
Since Nikola Tesla showed the public in 1890 that it could turn on off-grid fluorescent lamps just by using alternating electric fields, the idea of remote charging was incorporated into several concepts, all of which were in development before taking off in the next few years.
Remote charging is not just a practical matter. Several companies are studying “over the air” charging solutions to eliminate a huge plethora of electrical cables, among the main components of electronic waste.
The EFSA and ECDC's One Health report Global E-waste Monitor 2020 found that the world has generated a record of 53,6 million tons of electronic waste last year. In the last 5 years it has grown by 21%, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Earlier this year Xiaomi also revealed your own concept remote charging called “We Air“. It generates 5 watts per device with a system composed of 144 antennas.
Clearly some time will pass before we see remote charging in our homes: it is imperative that all safety standards are met before any concept arrives on the market.
