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."

Comments

Re:Pronounced "Chee"

[Again]

...for those that don't want to read the summary but may wish to discuss it intelligently in person.

There. Fixed that for you.

A step in the right direction

[Peter Steil]

This is definitely a step in the right direction. I know it's really frustrating looking for a non-standard plug for my phone. I'm sure the days of searching for the right power adapter are limited.

Re:Health Issues?

[cruff]

5 watts is not a lot of energy. It's not like it is an induction cook top and you are a ferrous pan or anything. :-)

Yucky.

[Fantastic Lad]

Kind of like the corruption of the Elves into Orcs in LOTR, the idea of charging the air with yet more EM pollution and calling it "Qi" makes a sick mockery of the real thing.

And there's a frickin' pyramid with an eye ball on the dollar bill.

We're being laughed at even as we are mutilated and enslaved.

Cue the conceited, ill-informed rationalizations.

-FL

Re:Time to buy stock

[FCAdcock]

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.

So...

[FlyingSquidStudios]

Will Nintendo adopt it? Because I want a Qi Wii. And assemble it in Finland so the factory's website will be QiWii.fi

Re:So...

[rabiddeity]

Why not New Zealand instead of Finland? Then you could have a Kiwi Qi Wii.

Re:Qi: The Greatest of All Scrabble Words

[fractoid]

Great. Now whenever I see 'qi' I'll mentally pronounce it as 'aieee! *pound*'