Apple’s intentions to introduce a wireless system to its iOS devices has been well documented over the past few months, but just exactly how it plans to do it remains to be seen. However, a new patent application published by the U.S. Patent & Trademarks Office today could reveal all.
9to5 Mac explains how the system works:
The oddly shaped charging tower taps the transformer unit to convert the voltage of the A/C power received from the wall socket, using the resulting voltage to drive the transmitting coil which is wrapped around a ferromagnetic core. This setup creates a varying magnetic flux in the ferromagnetic core. That magnetic flux could also propagate through air, meaning that (at least on paper) the charging station might function without a ferromagnetic core, opening door to wireless charging of iOS devices.
Apple also describes another method which would require you to place your earphones into a small “acoustic charger,” kind of like a dock for your earphones, to charge the device attached to the other end. Inside the acoustic charger is a speaker that uses a non-audible frequency range to create a vibration. This causes a transducer within the speaker to generate a current in the earphone conductors.
While I’ll commend Apple’s efforts to create a new method of charging, to me, this isn’t the “wireless charging” method I was hoping for. In fact, this isn’t wireless charging at all.
What do you think of this method for charging your iOS devices?
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
