充电器或难逃被淘汰命运：无线充电技术将成主流

    据媒体7月报道，丰田公司（Toyota）计划在2016年推出一款全新的混合动力版普锐斯（Prius）电动车，其特别之处在于，这款新车将完全不需要“插电”就能充电，这还要感谢一家名叫WiTricity的美国公司开发的无线充电技术。就在这条消息曝光后的次日，英特尔公司（Intel）也宣布将在2016年以前推出一款完全不需要任何电线的个人电脑，也就是说既不需要电源线，也不需要显示器连接线。9天后，星巴克（Starbucks）不甘落后地宣布，该公司将在美国的所有星巴克门店桌子和柜台上安装Duracell Powermat公司的无线充电平板。

    对于无线充电技术来说，今年六月发布的种种消息，的确是让人挺“来电”的。

    不过如果你对这个行业观察得更深入的话，你会发现，我们今天的电子设备虽然移动化程度越来越高，但终究还是离不开一根电线。而无线充电技术却将在未来几年里显著地改变我们与各种电子设备的关系。医疗器械公司Thoratec目前正在与WiTricity公司合作研究给人工心脏和其他医疗设备无线充电的方法。国防航天巨头洛克希德马丁公司（Lockheed Martin）也正在开发一套镭射系统，用来给飞行中的无人机充电。其他从事无线充电技术研究的公司还有很多。

    据市调机构IHS科技公司的数据预测，全球无线充电市场的规模有望从2013年的2.16亿美元飙升至2018年的85亿美元。那么我们大多数人何必还要在家里放一大堆充电器呢？

    高通公司（Qualcomm）的工艺副总裁、无线电源联盟（A4WP）的创始人兼总裁卡米尔•格拉吉斯基指出：“现实中，消费电子产品的无线充电市场总体上还处于非常初级的阶段。”格拉吉斯基创立的无线电源联盟是从事无线充电技术研发的三大组织之一。

    电磁感应作为无线充电的基础技术，早就不是什么新鲜事物了，它已经存在了足有100多年，其原理如下：首先，充电座上的电磁感应线圈会形成一个电磁场，这个磁场与另外一个电磁感应线圈接触后（这个线圈一般连接在需要充电的设备上），就会向其输送电力。格拉吉斯基表示，它的工作原理跟用充电座给你的电动牙刷充电没什么不同。

    不过电磁感应技术也有缺点，使它难以成为一种主流技术。首先，每个电磁感应线圈只能给一台设备充电，因此在如今多设备并存的社会中不免显得低效、不便。其次，它需要你把设备的位置放得很准确，才能让线圈启动和保持充电程序。

    电磁感应技术的支持者，比如Powermat公司的CEO兰•波利亚凯恩等，都认为推广无线充电技术的关键，并不在于怎样实现最快速或最有效的连接，而在于如何让人们在最需要的地方用上它。波利亚凯恩表示：“我们试图解决的问题是，如何让消费者整天都能充电。最大的阻碍就是关联性，我们应该把充电点放在哪里？”他补充道：“你最需要这项服务的地方，是在家或办公室以外的地方。”

    他说的很有道理。把充电点放在星巴克的门店里不失为一个好办法，至少可以避免消费者在咖啡厅里长聊时不得不到处找电源插口。另外我们也可以把它放在机场、酒店或Powermat的充电站里。（大家可能不知道Powermat充电站的一个功能，如果它与该公司提供的一套基于云端的管理系统协同使用的话，那么一家零售店就可以监测谁在哪个充电站待了多久。也就是说星巴克可以选择让你在那儿坐六个小时，或给你发送一张免费续杯的优惠券把你留引过来。）

    Last month, it was revealed that Toyota had plans to release a plug-in electric Prius in 2016 that needed no plug at all to recharge, thanks to wireless technology from a U.S. company called WiTricity. The next day, Intel announced plans to release a completely wire-free personal computer by 2016—no power cord, no monitor cable, nothing. Nine days later, Starbucks announced that it would begin installing Duracell Powermat wireless charging pads in tables and counters in its stores across the United States.

    For wireless charging technology, the news headlines in June were, well, rather electric. (This is the part where you groan.)

    Look more closely, though, and you’ll notice that wireless charging tech is poised to break through in the next few years, dramatically changing our relationship with our increasingly mobile, but still tethered, electronic devices. Thoratec, a healthcare company, is working with WiTricity on a wireless way to charge heart pumps and other medical equipment. Lockheed Martin, the aerospace and defense giant, is working on a laser-based system to recharge drones in mid-flight. The list goes on.

    The wireless power market is expected to explode from a $216 million in 2013 to $8.5 billion in 2018 globally, according to IHS Technology, a market research firm. Why, then, are most of us still wrestling with a pile of cords at home?

    “The reality is that the overall wireless charging market for consumer electronics is in the very early stages,” says Kamil Grajski, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm and the founding president of the Alliance for Wireless Power, or A4WP for short, one of three groups working on the development of wireless charging technologies.

    Induction, the technology behind wireless charging, isn’t new—it’s been around for well over a hundred years. Here’s how it works: an induction coil creates an electromagnetic field (on a charging dock of some kind) that comes in contact with another induction coil (attached to the device to be charged), transferring electricity to it. It’s the same process used to juice up your electric toothbrush in its charging stand, Grajski says.

    But induction technology has limitations that have limited its mainstream appeal. It only allows for a single device to be charged per coil, making it clunky and relatively inefficient in today’s multi-device world, and it requires precise placement of the device to be charged so that the coils are aligned in order to initiate and sustain the charging process.

    Proponents of inductive technology like Ran Poliakine, chief executive of Powermat, believe the key to increasing adoption of wireless charging lies not in figuring out the fastest or most efficient connection, but in making the technology available to people where they need it most. “The issue we are trying to address is how do we keep consumers charged throughout the day,” he says. “The barrier to entry was relevancy. Where do we put the charging spots?” He added: “The place you mostly need this service is outside your home and your office.”

    He has a point. Placing charging stations in Starbucks locations is one way to do that, saving customers from the inevitable outlet search that comes with a drawn-out session at the café. Placement in airports and hotels, also in the works at Powermat, are two more ways. (One thing people may not know about Powermat’s charging stations: when used in conjunction with a cloud-based management system the company provides, a retailer can monitor who is at which station and for how long. Which means Starbucks could either give you the boot for squatting for six hours or beam you a coupon for a free refill to keep you there.)