Generic stock photo shows an iPhone smartphone displaying a low battery warning.

‘Wireless charging’, as it appear sin phones such as Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is a bit crap – you still need to leave your phone on a special pad.

But a new system designed by University of Washington researchers could finally deliver truly wireless charging – using Wi-Fi.

The team’s ‘power over Wi-Fi’ system can recharge batteries over a Wi-Fi network, with a range of up to 28 feet.

There’s two parts – an access point (AKA a router) and a sensor which sits on your phone or other electronics, and converts radio power into DC current.


The new system means your Wi-Fi network still works, too – and it already works, although it’s not clear when a working system will reach the market.



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‘If we wanted to just blast as much power as we possibly can, that would kill your Wi-Fi, because you’d have power on the channel all the time,’ says researcher Bryce Kellogg.

‘We optimized the router so that we can deliver what seems like, to the sensor, constant power without impacting your Wi-Fi too much. Instead of having continuous power on one of your Wi-Fi channels, we split it among your three non-overlapping Wi-Fi channels. That allows us to deliver about the same amount of power without impacting any one channel very much.’