Ossia, the wireless pioneers of over-the-air charging platform Cota, gave an outstanding demonstration both this and last year at the Consumer Electronics Show. Hatem Zeine, who’s the founder and chief executive, showed a USB charger, AA battery and an analog clock charging meters away from a wireless station. Cota is the term of Ossia’s charging technology. It’s composed of a transmitter, receiver and a software to make it functional and manage everything.
The transmitter has a few different variations but its main purpose is to charge Cota-compatible devices using hundreds of antennas that beam radio waves 100 times a second. The receivers trigger their work when a Cota-compatible receiver sends a packet of information, that indicates that it’s low on power.Then Cota directs the needed energy to the location and the device starts charging. It doesn’t have to be stationary because the Cota transmitter has the ability to re-establish disrupted connections within a second.
How does it work?
The team of creators came up with the brilliant idea of designing a small micro-chip receiver, that could be build-in any device you want. When it runs out of energy, it’s chip sends a packet of information to the transmitter and the charging starts initially and stops when it’s fully charged. This way you won’t “overcharge” your device because it works only when the battery of it is low. One of the best things of all is that Cota is “smart”. In an example, if it’s charging 3 devices it will charge them to full-capacity and will decide what needs more power and when.
Cota ceiling tile base – perfect for the office.
Is it user-friendly?
My first thought about this innovation was that it’s not that good for our health. If it has the ability to charge your phone or camera it has to be powerful? The truth is, that Cota uses the same frequency as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so it’s completely user-friendly and won’t affect the health of the ones nearby.
Should we see it more in future?
The idea is really innovative and changes the rules of how we use electricity to power our devices. In future as human beings, we have to constantly search for more ecological and smart ways to use electricity. Just imagine how much waste from batteries it will save us from? There are future plans of making a Cota charging base that works on solar-transmitted power, which will be revolutionary!
In our daily life, we use more and more electric-powered devices, so we became a “power hungry” society. I personally never go out without a phone, but I also never take its charger with me. We all have faced the problem with low-battery, so I will be glad to see such platforms in public places.
As humans, we have to think of more relevant to earth ways of using electricity and not harm it with waste pollution. We have to show the future generations a new way of thinking, different from what we have now because otherwise we are all doomed.
