Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Enabling Bluetooth for Smart Wireless Charging Stations

The Bluetooth SIG and Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) have set-up a formal liaison relationship to advance smart wireless charging station.



As a first step, the Bluetooth SIG has issued a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) to the A4WP for adoption in its baseline system specification (BSS).  The A4WP BSS utilizes the Bluetooth Smart radio standard to carry the session management and power control between an A4WP charging station and an A4WP-certified device, e.g., smartphone.

The organizations said benefits of their collaboration include:

  • Consumers will benefit from devices initiating a charge more quickly when coming into contact with charging surfaces
  • Consumers will also see improved power control features such as giving one device prioritized charging when multiple devices are charging at the same time
  • OEMs and developers will be able to create a new class of applications  to leverage these smart wireless charging stations (e.g., mobile payments, location based services)

"Bluetooth Smart is a foundation technology for the Alliance for Wireless Power," said Dr. Kamil A. Grajski, president of the A4WP.  "By combining Bluetooth Smart with magnetic resonant wireless power transfer technology, the A4WP delivers a next-generation user experience that features one charging station to many simultaneous devices, freedom of placement on tabletops, desktops and automotive environments, and charging solutions that scale seamlessly from wireless headsets to smartphones, to tablets and laptops."

http://www.a4wp.org/