Xiaomi is not the first company to experiment with wireless charging, but the Chinese tech manufacturer wants to share what it's working on. The company calls it Mi Air Charge Technology, a wireless charging system that only requires the devices it needs to top up to be "within a radius of several meters."
It will work on multiple gadgets simultaneously at a charging speed of 5W. And according to Xiaomi, physical obstacles (like the couch you see in the GIF above) won't affect charging efficiency.
Xiaomi intends the technology to work with all kinds of devices, including wearables, speakers, lamps, and other smart home gadgets. It hopes to make "living rooms truly wireless." But Xiaomi hasn't revealed a timeframe for when this technology will be available to the public.
As for how it all works, this is how Xiaomi explains the tech:
The core technology of Xiaomi's remote charging lies in space positioning and energy transmission. Xiaomi's self-developed isolated charging pile has five phase interference antennas built in, which can accurately detect the location of the smartphone. A phase control array composed of 144 antennas transmits millimeter-wide waves directly to the phone through beamforming.
On the smartphone side, Xiaomi has also developed a miniaturized antenna array with built-in "beacon antenna" and "receiving antenna array." Beacon antenna broadcasts position information with low power consumption. The receiving antenna array composed of 14 antennas converts the millimeter wave signal emitted by the charging pile into electric energy through the rectifier circuit, to turn the sci-fi charging experience into reality.