One of the most promising and innovative displays at CES was from RCA. The company's Airnergy WiFi Harvesting Charger is so cool it is simply hard for me to believe. The current incarnation is a battery roughly the size of a sleek candy bar phone that gets charged by a common Wi-Fi signal and charges devices via USB. These are signals that are more or less ambient today. Collecting energy that would otherwise be wasted, it is virtually free.
RCA hopes to get it to consumers this summer and if they can deliver an Airnergy harvester with capacity to charge a couple of devices around the $40 mark mentioned in Oh Gizmo!'s video, how could it not be a huge hit? The rep claims it pushed a BlackBerry from a 30% charge to 100% in around 90 minutes. Even more impressive is the claim of eventual packaging in a conventional battery.
With Wi-Fi being so ubiquitous Airnergy equipped devices would always be at or near full charge.
Matthew Fortner has been at The News & Observer since 2002. He has a passion for gadgets, cutting-edge technology and all things geek.