Ready to Bid Good Riddance to Charging Cords?

Funny thing about wireless gadgets: They don't work unless you charge them. You know, with wires.

This paradoxical state of affairs will soon go the way of the wireless television — it will become obsolete. A whole bunch of really smart engineers are working on new and better ways to charge battery-operated devices without ever plugging them in. Base stations with wireless connections are in fact already common. For example, many electric toothbrushes are charged wirelessly through the plastic. The new engineering effort is designed to solve all the problems associated with ever-larger and more power-hungry devices, including mobile phones, laptops and even cars.

Over the next few years, one category of gadget after another will become wirelessly charged via a new breed of base stations, which will often be built into furniture, and this change will transform our homes. The technology of wireless charging will improve in five ways:

• It will become available to charge more powerful devices than current products can.
• The charging base station will be able to charge any supported device (right now base stations and devices have to be matched).
• Charging will become "smart," meaning that the base stations will detect whether and where a device is located on the surface, and send current only when and where it's needed.
• Furniture will come with charging stations built in.
• The distance over which charging can take place will increase — up to a few feet or more.

Coffee tables, dresser tops, night tables, kitchen counters and other surfaces will become wireless charging stations, and simply power or charge whatever specially created device is placed on it. You'll plug in the table, but the objects on the table, such as lamps, kitchen appliances, and consumer electronics devices like phones, tablets, TV remotes and others, will get their power from just under the table surface.

Wireless charging will reduce clutter and make homes safer. Without exposed metal conductors, there's no risk of electrocution. They'll also make life more convenient. Rather than having to remember to plug in your phone, tablet, laptop and other devices every night, you can just drop them on a table and the charging will happen automatically.

The wireless charging revolution has already begun, with some innovative products coming out for major-brand smart phones.