“It may sound futuristic, but Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet,” Haiken reports.
Haiken reports, “Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity. How big can it get? ‘The sky’s the limit,’ says John Shearer, Powercast’s founder and CEO. He estimates shipping ‘many millions of units’ by the end of 2008.”
“Powercast says it has signed nondisclosure agreements to develop products with more than 100 companies, including major manufacturers of cell phones, MP3 players, automotive parts, temperature sensors, hearing aids, and medical implants,” Haiken reports.
“Could Powercast’s technology also work for larger devices? Perhaps, but not quite yet. Laptop computers, for example, use more than 10 times the wattage of Powercast transmissions,” Haiken reports. “But industry trends are on Shearer’s side: Thanks to less energy-hungry LCD screens and processors, PC power consumption is slowly diminishing. Within five years, Shearer says, laptops will be down to single-digit wattage–making his revenue potential even more electrifying.”
More in the full article here.