Seamless magic of wireless charging

Imagine a world where you would be able to charge your phone, laptop or tablet wirelessly, doing away with chargers and cables.

That is a world that Auckland entrepreneur Fady Mishriki wants and has been working towards for the past nine years.

He founded PowerbyProxi and has developed an array of wireless charging products, ranging from the heavy duty to those made for smartphones.

The company had 360 patents and recorded on March 31, 2016, a 781 per cent growth in revenue on the year before.

Now with 55 staff and offices in Auckland and the United States, PowerbyProxi’s goal is simple: to allow people to power everyday devices without having to plug them in. The vision was to make it as easy for people to charge their phones or tablets as it was to access wi-fi.

Mishriki said that reality was about 10 years away but was already starting to happen, with some Ikea furniture made with wireless transmitters built into their surfaces.

Innovation for PowerbyProxi was about making wireless power seamless for the end user.

One challenge the company faced was the sensitive nature of the technology. Previous wireless charging technology required the device to be placed in an exact position or else it would stop charging.

Another issue was the super slow charging speed. Mishriki said it took about three times longer to charge than if it was charged normally.

PowerbyProxi’s ‘‘Proxy 2D’’ product allowed devices to be charged regardless of alignment. In addition, more than one device could be charged and it charged just as quickly as a wired charger.

‘‘One of our values is we are innovators, not just inventors. Innovation is about taking [ideas] to market,’’ Mishriki said.

The Fairfax Media Innovation series runs in partnership with Callaghan Innovation.