Apple applies for patent on wireless charging system

Apple has filed a patent application called Wireless Power Utilization in a Local Computing Environment. It is a fancy name for a wireless charging system that uses near-field magnetic resonance. The NFMR creates a field that will recharge any electronic device with NFMR resonator circuits, within a yard of the source. Mobile phones, toys, wireless phones, remote controls, anything that uses rechargeable batteries can be "refueled" with this technology.

It is obviously an improvement over the current wireless charging technology which requires you to put your handset on a pad. We really haven't come that far since Palm introduced the Touchstone wireless charging system when it announced the Palm Pre back at CES 2009, so this would seem like a great idea on its face. But there is a catch and it is a big one.

Powering up the magnetic field could end up causing Lightsquared style interference, meaning that it can be problematic. Credit cards with a magnetic strip might have critical information wiped out and who knows what will happen to your hard drives. But we're sure that Apple will have all of the answers before releasing such a system. Or, considering the speed at which Apple's army of attorneys defend the Cupertino based firm's IP portfolio, this could just be a warning to others working on similar technology to tread lightly.

source: USPTO