In the future, hopefully smartphones and other mobile devices will have a way to charge themselves so we won’t have to think about it. There have been a few concept designs over the past year which suggest that could be coming. But until the day is here, we will have to deal with the hassle of charging our phones often. Wouldn’t it be great if you could charge your phone by just putting it on your kitchen countertop at home?
This is a brilliant idea, and it’s not a concept design, it’s a real product. Dupont Building Innovations and the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) have collaborated to create this tabletop that has wireless charging capabilities built right into it. It wouldn’t have to end with the kitchen counter either. Imagine if you could charge your phone by just setting it on the coffee table in the living room or nightstand in the bedroom.
It really doesn’t get any easier than that. This is taking the wireless charging concept to the extreme, and morphing it into our everyday lives in a seamless, straightforward way. Right now the way this is being developed is quite simple. It basically takes the Powermat’s wireless charging technology and incorporates it into a Corian solid surface, which is commonly used for all kinds of countertops.
I read an article on macgasm that raised a good point about these countertops. Although it might be useful to charge your phone on one of these now, what happens in a few years when our devices are all upgraded and require different levels of power? I mean, we wouldn’t want to have to upgrade our countertops each time we upgraded our devices to keep them useful. I wonder how that will work. Maybe the countertop will wirelessly connect to our smartphone and give itself an upgrade. I guess we’ll find out soon enough since we will start seeing these ‘charging countertops’ before long.
Charge Your Phone By Putting It On The Kitchen Countertop
(Click Images To Enlarge)
Via: [psfk] [engadget] [designboom]
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