Xiaomi debuts first over-the-air wireless charging but won't launch it this year

It appears Xiaomi has just unveiled a revolutionary new way of charging devices, and it’s called the Mi Air Charge Technology. According to Xiaomi, this new technology will enable users to remotely charge electronic devices without any cables or charging stands.

Talk about entering a TRUE WIRELESS charging era. Imagine, just walking into a room, and the mobile phone in your pocket just starts charging itself automatically. It even supports 5W-charging of multiple devices concurrently.

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So how does the Mi Air Charge Technology actually work? This is how Xiaomi describes it:

The core technology of Xiaomi’s remote charging lies in space positioning and energy transmission. Xiaomi’s self-developed isolated charging pile has five phase interference antennas built-in, which can accurately detect the location of the smartphone.

 A phase control array composed of 144 antennas transmits millimeter-wide waves directly to the phone through beamforming.

On the smartphone side, Xiaomi has also developed a miniaturised antenna array with built-in “beacon antenna” and “receiving antenna array”. Beacon antenna broadcasts position information with low power consumption.

The receiving antenna array composed of 14 antennas converts the millimeter wave signal emitted by the charging pile into electric energy through the rectifier circuit, to turn the sci-fi charging experience into reality.

Currently, Xiaomi remote charging technology is capable of 5-watt remote charging for a single device within a radius of several metres.

Apart from that, multiple devices can also be charged at the same time (each device supports 5 watts), and even physical obstacles do not reduce the charging efficiency. 

It may still be some time before an actual product powered by Mi Air Charge gets into consumers’ hands (it won’t be launched this year).

The question is, what will 144 charging antennas + Wi-Fi do to our bodies and brains in the long run?

This article was first published in Geek Culture.