New Charger Harvests Energy from Wi-Fi Signals

RCA recently showcased a new charging product called the Airnergy Charger that collects Wi-Fi signals, converts them to electricity, and uses that electricity to power a small internal battery. The charger can then be plugged into a device such as a mobile phone via USB and provide it with a charge. The device is always on and collecting Wi-Fi signals, so it is always charging (when near Wi-Fi hot spots). According to RCA, the Airnergy Charger will be available by summer 2010 with a retail cost of about $40.
[CES 2010] RCA Airnergy Charger Harvests Electricity From WiFi Signals


This thing is, seriously, the highlight of CES for me (so far) this year. 3D TVs and eBook readers are fine, but there’s nothing amazing about them.

The Airnergy Charger is amazing.

This little box has, inside it, some kind of circuitry that harvests WiFi energy out of the air and converts it into electricity. This has been done before, but the Airnergy is able to harvest electricity with a high enough efficiency to make it practically useful: on the CES floor, they were able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% to full in about 90 minutes, using nothing but ambient WiFi signals as a power source.

The Airnergy has a battery inside it, so you can just carry it around and as long as you’re near some WiFi, it charges itself. Unlike a solar charger, it works at night and you can keep it in your pocket. Of course, proximity to the WiFi source and the number of WiFi sources is important, but at the rate it charges, if you have a home wireless network you could probably just leave anywhere in your house overnight and it would be pretty close to full in the morning.


Here is the really, really unbelievable part: RCA says that the USB charger will be available this summer for $40, and a battery with the WiFi harvesting technology will be available soon after. I mean, all kinds of people are pushing wireless charging, but this would hands down take the cake… It doesn’t need a pad and it’s charging all the time, for free, in just about any urban environment.

We didn’t think you’d believe all this, so we made RCA explain it all on video: