Last month, it was revealed that Toyota had plans torelease a plug-in electric Prius in 2016 that neededno plug at all to recharge, thanks to wirelesstechnology from a U.S. company called WiTricity. Thenext day, Intel announced plans to release acompletely wire-free personal computer by 2016—nopower cord, no monitor cable, nothing. Nine dayslater, Starbucks announced that it would begininstalling Duracell Powermat wireless charging pads intables and counters in its stores across the UnitedStates.
　For wireless charging technology, the news headlines in June were, well, rather electric. (This isthe part where you groan.)
　Look more closely, though, and you’ll notice that wireless charging tech is poised to breakthrough in the next few years, dramatically changing our relationship with our increasinglymobile, but still tethered, electronic devices. Thoratec, a healthcare company, is working withWiTricity on a wireless way to charge heart pumps and other medical equipment. LockheedMartin, the aerospace and defense giant, is working on a laser-based system to rechargedrones in mid-flight. The list goes on.
　The wireless power market is expected to explode from a $216 million in 2013 to $8.5 billion in2018 globally, according to IHS Technology, a market research firm. Why, then, are most of usstill wrestling with a pile of cords at home?
   The reality is that the overall wireless charging market for consumer electronics is in the veryearly stages,”says Kamil Grajski, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm and the foundingpresident of the Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP for short, one of three groups working onthe development of wireless charging technologies.
　Induction, the technology behind wireless charging, isn’t new—it’s been around for well over ahundred years. Here’s how it works: an induction coil creates an electromagnetic field (on acharging dock of some kind) that comes in contact with another induction coil (attached to thedevice to be charged), transferring electricity to it. It’s the same process used to juice up yourelectric toothbrush in its charging stand, Grajski says.
　But induction technology has limitations that have limited its mainstream appeal. It only allowsfor a single device to be charged per coil, making it clunky and relatively inefficient in today’smulti-device world, and it requires precise placement of the device to be charged so that thecoils are aligned in order to initiate and sustain the charging process.

　For now, the wireless charging standards war rages on, and the technology remains a noveltyat best. But it can’t go on forever. Just as Wi-Fi became the standard protocol for wirelessdata exchange between computers, so shall one wireless charging standard emerge as thewinner. Only then will we see what wireless charging is capable of.

                                                                                                                                                                                      SUKI

2018-07-10

 Disclaimer: This article comes from individual, KRECO has the right of final interpretation.