Towards a new generation of remote wireless smartphone chargers

MOTOROLA has announced that it is currently working on a remote wireless charging system for its future smartphones. The aim is to let users recharge their handsets simply by being in the same room as the charger, without needing to place the smartphone upon it.

For this, Motorola is partnering with the GuRu Wireless startup. And while the American firm has started talking about the project, the manufacturer is yet to state which models could benefit from the technology.

Motorola explains that with this solution, it will no longer be necessary to place a smartphone on a dedicated base for wireless charging. Here, the handset simply has to be nearby, even at more than a meter from the charger. The charger appears to take the form of a small transmitter that uses millimeter wave frequencies, like those used to carry 5G in a different application. In fact, other researchers in the US have already succeeded in charging small connected devices thanks to the energy generated from the 5G network.

Motorola isn't the only manufacturer working on this kind of remote charging. Early this year, the Chinese firm Xiaomi demoed a new particularly innovative wireless charging technology using airwaves, which is still at prototype stage. Here too, there's no need to place the smartphone on a charging station, since the device charges automatically when in the vicinity of a compatible transmitter.

And, in the future, smartphones may not be the only connected devices to benefit from this kind of technology.