Qi low power standard is finalised

A WIRELESS POWER STANDARD that appears to be named after a British game show has been finalised.

Qi, which does not stand for Quite Interesting and is not fronted by someone who is incredibly intelligent except when it comes to Apple gadgets, delivers up to five Watts into wireless power receivers.

The name Qi apparently refers to "essential power" that is associated with breaking bricks in martial arts. The idea is that you do not need a contact between a power transmitter and a power receiver. The juice is transferred using near field magnetic induction between coils.

The devices will be used by "the majority of handheld mobile devices," most of which need less than 5W of power.

They are fairly sure that it is the first universal wireless power standard. The technology can be integrated into devices or provided as add-on sleeves, and is similar to the Touchstone used by the Palm Pre smartphone. µ