Since Apple is always on the lookout for (mostly smaller) companies worth acquiring, it might give a look at Guru, which has built a wireless charging system that transmits electricity using high-frequency radio waves. Wireless charging would seem to fit perfectly in Apple’s wheelhouse.
Guru says its zero contact energy system beams power through the air, using radio wave technology, which means devices can receive power, without wires, cords, or physical contact. The company says the beams intelligently find, and power devices. Devices placed anywhere in a room with a nearby generator automatically receive power.
The generating unit (GU) is where the wireless power originates. This generator plugs directly into the wall and converts electricity into millimeter wave radio energy. Inside the GU, a grid of thousands of transmitters generate energy—and through the RF lensing process, this energy is focused into concentrated beams of radio wave energy. These beams carry energy to nearby devices.
Then there’s the receiving unit (RU) that contains a small, thin array of circuits. It’s placed externally on the back of your device (or embedded into your device’s architecture.) The RU announces its presence to the GU, so that radio waves are sent to it from the GU. The RU determines how much energy your device needs, and converts incoming radio wave beams into electric power.
The idea of sending power of distance is not new. Nikola Tesla had that same idea that power should be sent wirelessly,” says co-founder and CEO Florian Bohn, who previously founded a cellphone component company called Axiom Semiconductor and worked on a CalTech initiative to harness solar power and beam it to Earth using microwaves, told The Verge. “What makes us different is we’re using very advanced technology as well as our system design and mmWave technology that allows us to send power in a controlled and safe and effective manner.”
The Verge says the real innovation Guru claims it has pioneered is something the company calls Smart RF Lensing. It’s a patented technology Bohn’s co-founder Ali Hajimiri developed at CalTech alongside Princeton University’s Kaushik Sengupta that involves controlling the direction and number of beams that get transmitted.
Guru says Radio Frequency Lensing allows its devices to send concentrated beams of radio frequency through the air, and to your devices. Radio wave energy is generated in the GU, and then it is refracted and channeled into highly focused beams that reach and power your devices. This refraction of radio frequency into beams is similar to how a magnifying glass works—how diffuse light is collected, refracted, and then focused on a small point in space.
Guru says its technology is safe, adding that RF energy beams are engineered to go only where directed and nowhere else. Unlike WiFi, which projects energy in all directions—radio frequency is highly contained within beams and only projected to devices.
Guru says the energy beams have shallow penetration depth and can not reach internal organs (unlike cell phone and WiFi signals). Additionally, GuRu’s sensing technology and safety interlocks pause energy beams within milliseconds, if a person or pet approaches a beam’s path.
Imagine a house with such technology wirelessly powering your iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and perhaps eventually even Macs — all without wires.
That would truly be AirPower.
