It doesn’t matter how advanced your smartphone is, there’s always a very annoying and limiting aspect – battery life. You may even have phones that can last for 2 days, but then you pay a price, which can be a big size or a less powerful processor, lower quality screen, etc. In the end, you may not have it all yet. There are several types of research trying to solve this by either increasing a battery charge density, reducing charging times, making wireless charging mainstream and developing technologies to look for alternate sources of power. About a year ago, we talked about WattUp from Energous, a wire-free charging standard in the making, a technology that allows for a hardware piece to harness electrical energy from radio waves – which transport energy, and we have a lot of them fiddling around us everywhere we go. Back in this year’s CES, the company unveiled a working prototype of a smartphone case capable of capturing RF and transforming in electric current to recharge the battery, bringing to life the technology. We may be a few years away from seeing something like that on a smartphone, but a recent partnership between the company and Motorola may give us signs of what is possible in the near future.
As reported by Phandroid, Energous has partnered with Motorola Solutions to do research on the technology and recently Energous representatives participated on a Motorola Solutions employees event in Penang (Malaysia). Calm down, it doesn’t mean the next Moto X will charge itself. Motorola Solutions is different than Motorola Mobility, which is the one making our beloved smartphones and other consumer wearables. The former focuses on network solutions for industrial applications, such as advanced cellular technology and network equipment. While this is not a direct confirmation that the companies will be working together, this is something to begin with. For starters, this event is by invite only for anyone who doesn’t work for Motorola and they only invite people that are working together with the company. Additionally, there have been some job openings on Motorola Solutions for electrical engineers specialized in RF and battery technology.
The technology is really promising and Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, has joined Energous board back in July. However, even if Energous and Motorola Solutions work together in order to bundle the feature on a smartphone in the future, it will take at least a few years until we see something in our hands. Nevertheless, the first phone manufacturer to introduce it may get a clear advantage. Even though you probably won’t be able to fully charge your phone in a few minutes, it would at least give you 10 or 15% more juice by just walking around in the street or while commuting from home to work and back, meaning you would never run out of power.