VIDEO: PI'S WIRELESS CHARGER CAN CHARGE YOUR PHONE FROM A DISTANCE

Pi, a startup formed by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is developing a charger based on the Qi wireless charging, but it is different than the standard Qi wireless chargers, as it can top up compatible devices at once, which is another limitation of wireless chargers that are currently available. 

Current wireless charging solutions require the user to place the device directly on top of the charger and some setups will not work if the handsets are placed in a different orientation. Pi chargers aim to provide flexibility to consumers by using a beamforming algorithm that directs the magnetic field to smartphones compatible with the Qi wireless charging standard, allowing the phone to be charged at a distant. Beamforming is a general term for the process that focuses radio or magnetic signals to a single sector, increasing the signal strength and reducing interference. The charging speeds decrease, however, as the smartphone moves away from the Pi charger.  

However, there are a few key obstacles to the design and construction of the product and one of them is the computational power and time needed to calculate the beamforming algorithm. It previously needed a high-end Intel x86 processor to compute the algorithm, but the people behind the project managed to reduce these requirements to a simple microprocessor.

Other improvements that the startup plans to implement include a component that can be plugged into existing wired devices like the Google Home. The Pi charger will be sold next year for less than $200, but the manufacturer did not identify when exactly will the product be available.