Last Auto Reviews Blog: CES 2009: Wireless gadget charging coming to your car

CES 2009: Wireless gadget charging coming to your car

Filed under: Gadgets, CES, Commercial Trucks

Click above to view a high-res gallery of eCoupled photos

You've probably heard of wireless battery charging technology, but soon you might just see it showing up in your car. Fulton Innovation has teamed up with Leggett & Platt to bring eCoupled Intelligent Wireless Power Technology to your mobile phone, MP3 player, radar detector or just about anything else that needs electricity.

Instead of a web of snarled power cords, the eCoupled system charges any enabled gadget resting on the power pad. As in the illustration, enabled devices resting within range of the pad would be juiced up just as if they were plugged in.

Bret Lewis, director of Fulton Innovation, gave us a demo of the eCoupled system Wednesday night. Fulton had outfitted an iPhone and a Motorola Bluetooth headset with an eCoupled coil. Lewis took the two devices, laid them on a wooden bowl and, as if by magic, the two began to charge. The only indication the bowl was anything but dead tree was an electrical cord running from the back. Underneath, the bowl had been hollowed to accommodate a metal plate with the coil inductor. The same type system could easily be incorporated into a car's console or instrument panel.

Ideally, Lewis says, gadget manufacturers would incorporate the technology into portable devices as they're designed. In the real world, of course, there are potentially billions of legacy devices that could benefit from a third-party attachment to allow the wireless batter charging.

But it gets better! Lewis says the system can also transfer data, potentially allowing wireless coupling of music players and mobile phones with you car.

We also spoke with Ross Haith Jr. of Leggett & Platt who let us in on some commercial vehicle projects they have ready to launch as soon as this year. Read about that as well as press releases from the two companies after the jump.

Gallery: CES 2009: Wireless gadget charging coming to you car