Someday Your Desk May Be Your Charger
I'm tired of seeing various chargers all over my house, ones for my cell phone, my iPod, my digicam, my husband's cell phone. They're unsightly, they use up valuable outlets, and my cat is probably licking them.
Herman Miller, makers of all those modern, expensive executive desk chairs, has partnered with a company called Fulton Innovation over their eCoupled technology. eCoupled lets you ditch your chargers and juice your portable electronics by putting them on your desk. Herman Miller is looking at building the technology into its desks.
The technology works by sending power to your device through a shared magnetic field. You still have to plug your eCoupled charger into the wall, but all of your devices get their juice from contact with the magnetic field. You can find the full-on geek description here. Of course, portable devices will need to be compatible with the eCoupled tech, so if manufacturers don't jump on board, you'll have to buy an adapter. An adapter for Motorola phones and Apple's iPod Shuffle (and other devices) is expected this summer. Meanwhile, Motorola is reportedly looking into integrating the technology into their electronics, though they have not confirmed nor denied.
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It's great that Herman Miller is taking the lead on building this technology into its legendary office furniture. It'll be pretty useless though, unless manufacturers start incorporating the technology into their wireless devices. So far, I have put off upgrading to a new cell phone, one reason being I will have to replace my four phone chargers at an added cost of about $100 (one for home, one for the car, one for the office, and one for travelling). Why do wireless device manufacturers seem reluctant to adopt the eCoupled technology into their devices? Perhaps it's because they make a healthy profit on their proprietary chargers. However, the idea of replacing all sorts of chargers (cell phone, pda, mp3 player, battery charger, etc.) with a single charger is very appealing and something for which folks would pay extra. So let's go Motorola, LG, Samsung, Nokia, Energizer, Sanyo, and you other manufacturers - give us the chip!
Jim Lynch, Executive Director
www.apomonline.org
Jeez, I can imagine sitting back, watching my video from my media laptop on my home theater while charging up my wireless devices. They need it almost every night anyway. And I want to be comfortable!!!
Harry
Oh yes too, what about wireless support for usb synching from the chair. That would be marveous.