Pi says its world’s first wireless charger that doesn’t need a mat or cords to charge devices
Despite Apple’s new iPhones to be release with wireless charging approach but wireless charging technology has actually been existed for some time.
A new startup of Silicon Valley named Pi has taken wireless charging truly to the next level. Pi founders claimed that it has developed the world’s first wireless charger that doesn’t need a mat or cords to charge devices.
Pi chargers, about the size of a small table vase, operate on standard charging technology used in Apple or Android smartphones designed to be powered up wirelessly.
The innovation in Pi chargers is, instead of cords or mats, the conical creation charges smartphones with magnetic waves.
Pi uses electromagnetic charging technology — resonant induction, the same technique used in Qi — that’s been “proven safe” at the power levels needed to charge smartphones, tablets, wireless earbuds, and other portable electronics.
It took Lixin Shi, an MIT Ph.D., and John MacDonald, a physician-turned-MBA-student at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, three and a half years of research to develop Pi’s magnetic field-reshaping components.
The team says they’re using resonant induction here, or the same underlying concept that powers the Qi charging standard found in the new iPhones and many an Android phone. Their secret sauce, according to co-founder John Macdonald, is a beam-forming algorithm that lets them safely direct a magnetic field to wherever the device is sitting.
According to Macdonald, you can charge up to four phones at full speed if they’re all 12-inches or so away from the Pi. Once you add more phones, it’ll slow down slightly, but they’ll still get well above the one watt required to turn on the charging circuit. Shi says that the maximum output right now is 20 watts, but it’s theoretically possible to increase the power by integrating components with a higher power rating, which might be able to accommodate laptops in the future.
Pi is available for pre-order from the company’s website. It’s expected to ship sometime in 2018 for “under $200,” but customers who reserve one early get $50 off the purchase price.