Apple may be working extra hard to make innovation happen! It was reported that Apple may be bringing wireless charging to the iPhone in the future, most likely iPhone 6? Apple will likely implement more exotic near field magnetic resonance charging currently being championed by wireless power startup WiTricity. Induction charging works by inducing a current in a coil of wire from one device to another. A charger device contains a large coil of wire inside. When a current passes through the coil, it creates a small magnetic field around the coil. When a second coil—embedded in a mobile device like a smartphone—is brought into close proximity of the first coil’s magnetic field, it induces a current to pass through the second coil.
This technique is the same one that is used to build power transformers. The downside is wireless charging does not occur if the distances are great. Also the charging is not efficient and only trickle charge would be possible because a lot of energy is lost as heat. Near field magnetic resonance (NFMR), on the other hand, can work over much larger distances.
The power source is a relatively low power magnetic resonator, which creates a stronger magnetic field than a typical induction charger. Devices then use a tunable resonant circuit that can “dial in” to the specific frequency of the power source. The tuned resonance increases efficiency, as high as 90 percent—while increasing the size of the usable resonant field.
The technology was originally developed between 2005 and 2007 by a team led by MIT physics professor Marin Soljačić. WiTricity was founded in 2007 by Soljačić and others to commercialize the technology. Two years later, WiTricity CEO Eric Giler demonstrated the technology using a modified iPhone during the 2009 TED conference.