Over the last few years, there has been an explosion in the number of portable or semi-portable devices we all carry around with us, laptop PCs, mobile phones, iPods, Palms, sat navs and more. One big issue which cuts through this whole area is getting power to these devices conveniently. If your home is like mine, you now have a number on mutually incompatible chargers around you and when your phone runs out of juice you can spend many minutes trying to find the right charger to plug in. Using the simple TRIZ tool of intensification, as the number or devices increases and the distribution of these devices becomes more complex, the number of chargers increases massively and the cmplexity of getting power to them all becomes a major headache and probably a key limitation. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get your power wirelessly and simply? Well, there are some interesting emerging technologies which could make this possible.

One of my favourite technology sites is Philips Research. Right on the front page is a feature on wireless charging. Philps propose a wireless charging pad which transfers power to the devices by magnetic induction – induction coils in the pad induce current in charging coils in the devices, recharging their batteries. The magnetic induction principle is already used in the Philips electric toothbrush.

   

The encouraging thing about this technology is that Philips are working with the other device manufacturers to agree a standard so that the charging interface can be universal, taking away the problem of which charger is for which device.

Another company on the same trail is Splashpower. Once again their system is based on the principle of magnetic induction, giving the ability to transmit high power levels quckly and using a compact design. Splashpower also talk about charging applications in your car which seems like a great idea.

Both these developments will help to make ownership of mobile devices far easier in future. This sort of technology could well support the first steps to a further proliferation of mobile and embedded devices, taking us one step towards the ambient intelleigence vision of users being able to access personalised, context sensitive invisible intelligence in a seamless way.