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Wireless Power Consortium Pushes for "Qi" Standard
The Wireless Power Consortium (comprised of Samsung, Sanyo, Olympus, Philips, Texas Instruments, and others) has started a push towards a wireless charging standard under the moniker "Qi" (pronounced "chee"). "Members of the Wireless Power Consortium are reviewing version 0.95 of its technical specification which defines a proposed standard for charging devices, using up to 5Watts power, delivered by electromagnetic induction. The spec could evolve into a standard — and will be demonstrated by multiple vendors on September 15th to 16th. ... It is less ambitious than the system demonstrated this summer by Witricity, which operates at a distance of a few meters, using resonance, which the company claims has green benefits through replacing disposable batteries."
Actually, when this becomes real a tinfoil hat may be the very last thing you'd want to wear. I'm assuming this is sort of like what happens if you go near really high capacity power lines with a flouescent bulb, where the power in the air is enough to cause the bulb to light. It's also enough that having lived near one long enough I can attest that metal isn't fun to wear near one.
--Forest C. Adcock--
This is potentially a good thing. How many different charging devices do you have at the moment? I've got one for AAA and AA batteries, one for my phone, one for my iPod, one for my wife's phone, one for my DSLR, one for my camcorder, one for my...
I don't need long-range wireless power, like some developments are working on -- whilst this would be quite cool, it's very inefficient at this stage. Wireless charging of all these devices would however be a great benefit to reduce clutter and waste. If all the devices are compatible with the one spec of charger, then should I lose my phone charger, it doesn't matter as it's compatible with the charger I've got. I've had to replace one of the phone chargers not that long ago too as SonyEricsson have quite a delicate clip on the plug -- if this clip breaks, then the plug won't stay attached and the device doesn't charge.
I already enjoy the benefits of wireless charging with my electric toothbrush - it sits in a base that charges it back up. There are no electrical contacts or plugs to get wet and gunky with toothpaste residue, it's just a smooth plastic ring that the toothbrush sits in and away it goes.
To have a pad that I could place any of my devices on to recharge would be incredibly convenient. I truly hope that enough manufactures adopt this standard to make it a possibility. Unfortunately with standards, the great thing about them is that there are so many to chose from.
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
I can charge ten things with one plate. Epic win.
Hmmm, I wonder how many companies will start making small adapters that plug into your old phone/pda/etc's power plug so they work with this new interface...
I'll give you the logo part, it is difficult to make a logo around Chee.
But the "Sexy" part is debatable. I bet that a word that sounds like Kwee "sounds" cheap to Asian ears, while a word that sounds like Chee sounds sophisticated.I'll even bet that Chinese has a nice pictogram for Chee, while Kwee probably has none.
It is only to English speakers ear that Chee sounds cheap (mostly due to the similarity of the sounds), while Kwee sounds like greek Ki or royal (similar to Queen? ).
http://slashdot.org/submission/1062723/Cheap-mobile-data-plan?art_pos=2
I bet that a word that sounds like Kwee "sounds" cheap to Asian ears,
But it doesn't sound like "Kwee" it sounds like "Chee" - so it has the best of both worlds.
It is only to English speakers ear that Chee sounds cheap
I never said that "Chee" sounds cheap. I said it looks cheap. It sounds perfectly fine to my ears, and most English speakers would know the word, with a significant minority actually participating in practices that use the concept.
... and then they built the supercollider.