Xiaomi announces ‘air charging’, will let you charge your devices from meters away
In a social media post, the Chinese technology company announced ‘Mi Air Charge’ — a truly wireless charging technology that will juice up your mobile phone and other gadgets from a charging base a few meters away.
XIAOMI has just offered a glimpse on the future of how we’ll be powering up our devices in the future.
“Charge multiple devices simultaneously while you're gaming, walking around or even when something's in the way, no strings attached,” it said.
On its company blog, Xiaomi explained a few key details on how this technology works. The charging station itself, called a “self-developed isolated charging pile” (now that’s a name that rolls off the tongue), is about the size of a small refrigerator. It has five phase interference antennas that zero in on the location of your device. An array of 144 antennas then zaps “millimeter-wide waves directly to the phone through beamforming.”
To convert these signals into usable power, your smartphone must be equipped with a miniaturized antenna array. This converts the millimeter wave signal into electric energy through a rectifier circuit.
Xiaomi says that, so far, this setup is capable of 5-watt remote charging of a single device over the distance of “several meters.” (It did not specify the exact distance.) Five watts is the standard output of a typical charger, though wired “fast charge” units can pump out up to 12 watts.
With this bold announcement, Xiaomi — which produces the popular Mi and RedMi line of phones, but also manufactures an assortment of other products like TVs, laptops, tablets, wearables, and more — hopes to stake its claim on a technology that’s long been under development.
At present, commercial wireless charging still involves either a charging pad or pod that your device has to come in contact with. ‘Air charging’ is a tantalizing look at a truly wireless solution.
Take note that Xiaomi has not announced any specific products, prices, or release date for its 'Air Charge' tech.
“Charge multiple devices simultaneously while you're gaming, walking around or even when something's in the way, no strings attached,” it said.
On its company blog, Xiaomi explained a few key details on how this technology works. The charging station itself, called a “self-developed isolated charging pile” (now that’s a name that rolls off the tongue), is about the size of a small refrigerator. It has five phase interference antennas that zero in on the location of your device. An array of 144 antennas then zaps “millimeter-wide waves directly to the phone through beamforming.”
To convert these signals into usable power, your smartphone must be equipped with a miniaturized antenna array. This converts the millimeter wave signal into electric energy through a rectifier circuit.
Xiaomi says that, so far, this setup is capable of 5-watt remote charging of a single device over the distance of “several meters.” (It did not specify the exact distance.) Five watts is the standard output of a typical charger, though wired “fast charge” units can pump out up to 12 watts.
With this bold announcement, Xiaomi — which produces the popular Mi and RedMi line of phones, but also manufactures an assortment of other products like TVs, laptops, tablets, wearables, and more — hopes to stake its claim on a technology that’s long been under development.
At present, commercial wireless charging still involves either a charging pad or pod that your device has to come in contact with. ‘Air charging’ is a tantalizing look at a truly wireless solution.
Take note that Xiaomi has not announced any specific products, prices, or release date for its 'Air Charge' tech.
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