Imagine telling anyone with a smartphone that if they wanted to connect it to the internet they’d have to plug in a cable – people would look at you as if you were mad. Those of us who are a little older though will remember that for a long time, this was exactly how it was. Check out this (handheld footage video) of Steve Jobs introducing the world’s first consumer laptop with built-in Wi-Fi The Jobsian theatrical mastery is there, but viewed with today’s eyes it seems amusing that the crowd goes nuts because he was browsing the internet on an laptop without any cables! These days, of course, wireless internet is taken so much for granted that for most, Wi-Fi and internet are the same thing.

However, when it comes to power delivery for our smartphones, camera doorbells, game controllers and toothbrushes, and everything else – the world remains reliant on cables. OK, we do have wireless charging pads (Qi/MagSafe) – but contact is still required.

The problem, of course, is physics, and it turns out that sending energy over distances safely and efficiently is a far different challenge to sending data over radio waves.

However, a company called, Wi-Charge has been working on the problem for several years and now has a technology that can send usable amounts of power over the air, safely – which it calls “AirCord”. Not only that, but it’s now integrated into real world products. One is Wi-Spot – where power is sent to small portable video screens that are placed next to products in a supermarket to deliver advertising for adjacent products.

Another, is the Alfred ML2 smart lock. While I love my Nuki smart lock, there’s no getting away from the fact that it’s a pain when the built-in rechargeable batteries run low. With no nearby power socket, I have to find a long USB-C cable and portable charger and place it on the floor: cue, hunting for a long cable, finding that the power brick is not charged, swearing when it isn’t etc… – it’s all a bit of a faff. With a Wi-Charge transmitter in the ceiling, the Alfred ML2 receives power all the time – with no batteries changing needed.

What’s the science behind it?

So how does it work? First, just think of the Wi-Charge transmitter as you would of a regular plug socket, only one that sends out its power wirelessly. The transmitter accepts AC, DC or Power over Ethernet, and turns the electricity into an infrared beam, similar to a TV remote control. The beam is directional rather than broad angle, sending the energy directly to the client device, which contains a receiver that converts this infrared light into usable electricity.

Once the transmitter has established communication with a receiver, it interrogates it to establish what its power requirements are and its battery status. It then efficiently manages the required power distribution, similar to how a Wi-Fi router allocates its bandwidth.

The transmitter goes to sleep when there’s no need for power, waking up at intervals to check for new or existing devices in the room and to determine their power requirements.

Both the transmitter and the receiver contain mirrors that reflect the signal, bouncing the light back to where it came from in a continuous cycle, just like bicycle reflectors send out light back when illuminated.

It’s safe, right?

This plays into the next question – is it safe? As described above, the system works by beaming power directly between the transmitter and receiver. However, rather than an inefficient broadcast system, sending power out over a wide radius, AirCord takes a more precise approach.

The “AirCord” is the line-of-sight beam that sends the power between the transmitter and receiver. If anything gets physically in between them the energy flow is immediately stopped. This has three benefits over alternative long range approaches, it’s more efficient, it’s more powerful and as there isn’t any energy leakage, it’s safer too.

The Wi-Charge devices in the market in the US and Canada all received FDA, FCC and IEC approval without difficulty, says Mor.

“We knew what the regulations are and the limitations [so] we had to innovate [and] develop building blocks to support it,” says Mor. “ It was a safety-driven design that took us several years but when we were finished and took it to the regulator, they understood how it worked, tested it, and approved it – it was simple.”

Power enough

Co-founder Ori Mor tells me that smart locks, security cameras, electric shades, toothbrush chargers and game controllers can easily be served easily with the 300mW transmitter. For higher power requirements the company already has designed a 1Watt solution that ramps to 3Watt ready for a client that he could not reveal publicly at this stage.

With an initial focus on sub-Watt applications the amount of power being sent is relatively low. It's smarthome transmitter can send up to 300 milliwatts of power – but to put this into perspective this is far more than is needed for the Alfred ML2, which only needs only needs a five milliwatts or less to stay awake and ready to respond to an unlock request – at which time the power draw will go up to 10W for a moment - using a built-in battery to store the energy to support the peak power burst.

Wi-Charge also has a prototype wirelessly-powered conductive base for Oral-B toothbrush, eliminating the need for a cord. Mor says that the smarthome transmitter can power up to eight toothbrushes. It’s easy to imagine a couple of toothbrushes, a shaver, or even a speaker – with no need to be plugged in, giving much more freedom to position them as desired.

Seeing it working for real

As such, when Wi-Charge offered me the chance to try out its tech in my house in the UK, I was keen to take them up on the offer. They sent me a transmitter a ceiling housing, and a specially adapted AirCord-enabled conductive base for any Oral-B toothbrush.

As for the practicalities, the transmitter needs to be plumbed into the electrics – just as a regular wall socket would be. Wi-Charge supplied a custom-made housing with a 6in diameter for the transmitter, which did mean cutting a hole in the ceiling. The transmitter was going to be installed in the ceiling of my shower room and line of sight of the receivers as long as it’s within a 90-degree cone. As the housing enables the transmitter to be tilted, it’s relatively easy to place it in an optimal position.

However, during installation, the electricians, who naturally had never encountered anything like this before, did not have my confidence, and, as such, placed the transmitter, almost directly above where I placed the receiver. Fortunately, it still worked aesthetically, though it could have been even more unintrusive.

When initially powered up, a green LED lights up on the transmitter, indicating that it is scanning for receivers. When one is located, the LEDs on both transmitter and receiver turns blue to indicate a lock.

Initially, however, it did not do this. The light remained stubbornly green, leading me to thing I had a duff unit. However, after some buzzing and several minutes, a blue light appeared.

Mor later explained that this delay was a consequence of the prototype nature of the base. A regular toothbrush base is normally connected via cable and the toothbrush has been designed to expect Watts of mains power, far in excess of what it actually needs. The transmitter sends out “only” 300 milliwatts, so the prototype base has to mimic first accumulate energy from the wireless power transmitter, store it in a battery, and once it has enough, every 30 minutes it discharges its stored energy into the toothbrush to fill its battery. This workaround, however, wouldn’t be necessary with products designed for AirCord.

Ready for new build

Once it was all done, I was able to enjoy the unrivalled freedom of knowing that my toothbrush would always be charged – something, I think we all agree, is what we all need in all our lives.

OK, this all may sound like a lot of effort for such a relatively minor boon, but it has to be said that it’s feels natural. I never kept the toothbrush plugged in as it looks messy but it meant that often it ran out of power while I was using it. Now, when I have to plug my shaver in next to the toothbrush it feels clunky and clumsy.

Yes, no one would ever go to the hassle and expense of installing a new Wi-Charge transmitter just to power a single toothbrush but equally, you’d never think of installing a regular plug somewhere after the fact unless you were had a very specific need.

In a new build situation, be it a home, a hotel room or a commercial location, installing Wi-Charge transmitters should be a no-brainer. All we need of course, are the devices and top of that list, has to be smartphones. Imagine being able to put your phone down anywhere in line of sight of an AirCord transmitter – we could say goodbye to charging anxiety.

Come one, Apple, Samsung, et al – over to you.