Imagine walking into your kitchen, doctor’s office, place of work, or anywhere in-between, when something magical happens: Your iPhone starts charging in midair! If that sounds futuristic, it’s because it is; but the technology is real (and we could be getting our hands on it soon).
At CES 2019, Ossia is demonstrating some truly revolutionary tech that’ll one day give “wireless charging” a whole new meaning.
In collaboration with Spigen, Ossia’s Forever Sleeve charging case for iPhone X features the company’s unique Cota chip, which receives wireless power signals from a base station and converts those power signals into a usable electricity current to power your device.
The company describes its Cota technology as “Long range wireless power delivered without cables, batteries, line-of-sight, or charging pads.”
It’s only required that the iPhone and its compatible case are within 10-12 feet of the charging base station, so you won’t be able to leave the house or walk the dog while your iPhone’s juicing up. More importantly, the charge won’t be fast.
Ossia’s previous wireless charging station was only able to charge iPhones at an excruciatingly slow 1W, meaning about 5x slower than a traditional wired iPhone charger, and 7.5x slower than today’s fast wireless Qi-based chargers.
However, final iterations will feature 5.8GHz capabilities (over its current 2.4GHz capacity), which will increase the charging speed and max range users can stand away from the base. Official word on those upgraded speeds and max distance isn’t yet available.
Either way, the technology is very exciting and gives us a glimpse of what a truly wireless future could look like.
Release Date?
We’ve been hearing about Ossia’s wireless charging tech since at least when the company had hoped to officially launch the tech. It’s now 2019 with no official product to buy, but according to Gizmodo, we should be able to get our hands on it by 2020 at the latest.