Cota has been making more than a few jaws drop since the CES 2016 show, where it was first unveiled. This revolutionary wireless power technology still seems to be a prototype of what will hopefully come later. And we really hope it comes.

So what is it?

In the same way as WiFi provides wireless internet to devices in its vicinity, Cota charges your battery powered devices nearby without having to plug them in. And besides that, because Cota batteries work as receivers and not as conventional batteries, which eventually fade, they never need to be replaced. NEVER. Isn´t that be something everyone would love to have? Well, I certainly do.

How does it work?

Cota consists of an transmitter (something similar to a WiFi modem) and an RF receiver/beacon on the battery’s side. The battery’s RF receiver sends signals continuously, and when these are picked up by one of the transmitter’s antennas, it sends RF power back to the battery in the direction the signal was received. This charges the Cota batteries continuously, even when the devices are out of the transmitter’s line of sight.

Right now, there’s a receiver that emulates a AA battery. If a device doesn’t fit AA batteries or doesn’t have a built-in RF receiver (like none of today’s gadgets), an RF chip needs to be integrated somehow, like through the bulky case wrapping the cellphone at the CES show. We all know this might not be the most convenient, so Ossia is working towards making this chips smaller and easier to integrate with all kinds of devices.

Cota sparks the imagination when it comes to what could be done with this technology and where it could be applied. Just picture how things have changed since WiFi showed up and we could unplug the LAN cable. It was massive. And it could be even more so with wireless power.

Reducing Waste

Besides the breakthrough it would mean regarding the technology itself, it would also help reduce battery waste massively. Ossia wants to offer a battery that will NEVER NEED TO BE REPLACED. A ridiculous amount of batteries are thrown away every day and in spite of the efforts made by companies, governments and associations, the percentage of batteries that make it to the recycling bin is drastically low, with most battery types not even making it to 10%. This means that tons of severely damaging chemicals permeate the soil and pollute land and water resources, as well as releasing toxic pollutants to the air when burned.

This is a problem also acknowledged by the makers of products like these USB batteries, which solve the problem partially, as these batteries still need to eventually go. But besides reducing the use of batteries, so far it’s the best available solution at a consumer level. So if Ossia manages to make this available for everyone it’s going to be a big thing for the environment, given the amount of waste produced, how harmful it is and how difficult it is to get rid of it.

The technology is not yet for sale and has only been shown in a controlled environment, so if this is actually going to work as they say, we can´t say yet. It has been proved to work at 10 feet and one device at a time, but charging different kinds of devices at a larger distance is a different thing, like when trying to power a home or an office.

In spite of it’s current limitations, people at Ossia have been making great progress these last few years, so things do look promising and we are really looking forward to the outcome.

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