Xiaomi announced “Mi Air Charge Technology”, a wireless charging system that the company claims to be able to charge devices “within a radius of several meters”. Several devices can be charged at 5W at the same time, according to Xiaomi, and physical obstacles apparently do not reduce charging efficiency.
Xiaomi says the technology will also work with smartwatches and fitness bracelets. Another objective is to make “living rooms truly wireless”, with speakers, lamps and smart home devices, all powered by the same remote system. A Xiaomi representative confirms to The Vergehowever, no commercial product will include the technology this year and has declined to provide a launch deadline.
This is how Mi Air Charge Technology works, in the words of Xiaomi:
The central technology of Xiaomi’s remote charging is in positioning in space and power transmission. Xiaomi’s self-developed isolated charging cell has five built-in phase interference antennas, which can accurately detect the location of the smartphone. A phase control matrix composed of 144 antennas transmits millimeter waves directly to the phone through the formation of beams.
On the smartphone side, Xiaomi has also developed a miniaturized antenna set with an integrated “headlight antenna” and “receiver antenna set”. The Beacon antenna transmits position information with low power consumption. The set of receiver antennas composed of 14 antennas converts the millimeter wave signal emitted by the charging cell into electrical energy through the rectifier circuit, to transform the science fiction charging experience into reality.
Needless to say, you must be skeptical about the prospects for this technology to hit the market until the evidence suggests otherwise. Companies like Energous have been making announcements about “truly wireless charging” at CES and beyond for several years, but the technology is yet to gain momentum. Xiaomi has demonstrated advances in wireless charging engineering in the past, however, and has the advantage of having a huge hardware ecosystem that it could theoretically leverage.