Wirelessly charge your phone over WiFi

Have you ever thought about how useful your router could be to your smart devices? Well, say goodbye to cables, because researchers at the University of Washington have discovered a new breakthrough technology that allows an ordinary WiFi router to charge various devices, including iPhone and Android smartphones too.

With the increasing number of smart devices in our lives, there’s a real need for a more elegant charging solution than cables running everywhere. A recent report explained how the researchers equipped a variety of devices with sensors to take WiFi signals from a router and turn them into DC power.

The router is able to charge smart devices from a distance up to 28 feet away and it will still be enough to stay connected to the internet. The researchers have already installed their modified routers in six homes around Seattle and after a few tweaks the technology could be made available to the public.

Bryce Kellogg, a researcher at the University of Washington said, “If we wanted to just blast as much power as we possibly can, that would kill your Wi-Fi, because you’d have power on the channel all the time. We optimized the router so that we can deliver what seems like, to the sensor, constant power without impacting your Wi-Fi too much. Instead of having continuous power on one of your Wi-Fi channels, we split it among your three non-overlapping Wi-Fi channels. That allows us to deliver about the same amount of power without impacting any one channel very much.”

This technology really shows real promise. Current wireless charging systems are interesting, but not terribly practical; charger cases for your smartphone are bulky and just get in the way, and inductive charging is somewhat pointless considering your device has to be tethered in order for it to work.

If you are seriously geeky, take a look at the research team’s report here…

If all goes as planned, we might soon see a product that will make our lives much easier.