CES 2015| A Wireless Router That Can Charge 12 Devices At The Same Time–Is Enough For You?

“Usually the wacky people have the breakthroughs. The ‘smart’ people don’t.” — Burt Rutan

At CES 2015, it’s easy for you to admire plenty of “wacky ideas”, which, in my opinion, are brilliant ideas for our daily life. And here is another “wacky” idea: a company named Energous has just presented its router, which is claimed to power your 12 devices wirelessly from 15 feet away. What a fascinating invention!

Power unplugged with WattUp

I have a 10-foot long power cord to charge my iPhone while I grab a comfortable seat that is pretty far from the electric outlet. It’s wacky but it’s useful! A friend of mine usually charges his phone wirelessly, but the phone has to sit right on top of the charging pad. Even being slightly misaligned with the pad can cause a phone not to charge. We need to be set free from this current charging solution. And WattUp is all what we need! It gives us the freedom to receive a charge from anywhere within a 30 foot space.

Technically, the WattUp Power Router works by sending energy via a radio frequency (RF) signal to your electronic devices that have a wireless charge function, when needed and turned on. A WattUp receiver in each device converts that signal into battery power. The router works with a wide variety of electronic devices from cell phones, tablets, wearables, cameras, wireless keyboards to mice, headsets, sensors, LED lights, remote controls and toys; in essence any battery-powered device in your home or office.

Using Radio Frequency Technology, WattUp delivers safe wire-free charging energy at a distance of up to 15 feet, and maintains charging while the receivers are in motion. 12 devices can be managed by the system simultaneously.

“The entire system is software controlled, so it’s intelligent and customizable to your needs and environment. And, because it’s designed to work invisibly in the background, WattUp makes low battery anxiety a thing of the past,” said WattUp’s Engineering Team.

In fact, the device features multiple miniature antenna arrays and custom control chips in the transmitter, providing highly efficient energy. Its software system ensures that the charging waveforms are dynamically directed, focused and controlled via proprietary algorithms. Therefore, you are able to prioritize what gets charged and when. For example, you can set up a protocol that allows the router not to power up your phone until it is down to 7 percent power. You can also control what devices receive power manually, from a mobile app on your smartphone or tablet.

In this video, Energous CTO Michael Leabman demonstrates WattUp Technology:

Currently, the company has 7 partners. The latest partner to team up with Energous is integrated circuit manufacturer Dialog Semiconductor. Together with its partners, the company plans to bring reference designs and prototypes of its technology to other partners and consumers over 2015 with the hope that the device will be able to roll out as early as 2016. Keep calm TechDrive fans, we will keep you posted with Energous!

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