The wireless charging system featured on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.com allows for greater ease and flexibility in the dreaded time spent charging phones. AirVolt’s wireless charging system uses radio waves and is comparable to wired-charging. (Photo via Airvolt's Indiegogo)
Mobile communication devices are becoming an essential part of life around the world, and in more developed countries, smartphones have become commonplace. Aside from the practical functional capabilities of calling, texting, and email, smartphones have become an even more attractive and dominating part of life through access to apps, games, and social media platforms. Whether people “need” their smartphones to post a “sick tweet” or actually need convenience and constant access to the functionality of their smartphones (e.g. calling, texting, email) for practical and important purposes such as for work, AirVolt’s wireless charging system provides significantly more flexibility and convenience than wired-charging (even a really long wire).
Business Insider reported a tweet from Pew Research Center demographer, Conrad Hackett, which showed some statistics about the percentage of people that have smartphones by country, and noted that the United States is on the high end at 72%. There seems to be a large and likely growing market for smartphone devices, and AirVolt is capitalizing on these users’ desire for convenience by providing a simple accessory that makes their devices of convenience more accessible.
The product’s Indiegogo crowdfunding page states that the system has an effective range that reaches up to 12 meters, and a standard range of 9 meters but notes that the charging efficiency diminishes after 9 meters. The AirVolt charging system uses a transmitter that creates “one-type radio waves,” and the antenna that is inserted into the phone converts these transmitted radio waves into energy for the phone’s battery, and are only 10-15% less efficient than charging directly with a standard 5V charger. The page states that “Charging the smartphone at an average of two and a half hours using a wire, it will take you three hours if you use AirVolt instead,” and the longer charge time is compensated for by the convenience provided by the wireless system. There is also a feature called the “Power bank” that can be initiated by pressing the button on the transmitter and allows the phone to be charged even when the transmitter isn’t plugged into an outlet. The power bank feature is good for one full charge cycle and provides further flexibility in enabling access to smartphones and their various essential and/or trivial functions.
Saying only “Radio waves” it a bit of a black box description of how it works. However, based on the 9m distance, I assume it used Magnetic-Resonance power transfer. Like Witricity, for example. But, Airvolt seems to be offering a lower power option, less than 5W here.
AirVolt also intends to develop an app that will provide additional capabilities such keeping the battery in the 20-80% range, sequential charging, and turning off radio wave transmission at full charge, but it is clearly stated that the system can still function without the app. The Indiegogo page seems to suggest the retail price of a single radio transmitter and complementary antenna will be $50, and as more transmitters and antennas are purchased, the price drops to the extent that five transmitters and ten antennas would cost $360. AirVolt estimates that their product should be out for delivery in January 2018, and the latest possible date of delivery is February 2018. Assuming the system functions properly, it will undoubtedly provide a significant convenience and enable more consistent access to smartphones, but whether it will have positive societal and cultural implications for an already technology-obsessed generation remains to be seen.
The low budget official videos and grammar errors in the Indiegogo page does not give me a lot of confidence that the product will actually ship. Everything is a sort of "take our word for it, it totally works!"
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