Apple Wants Inductive Charging for Future iPhones, iPods

Apple is proposing a method for recharging iPhones and iPods without having to plug any wires in them. Instead, a charging ‘tower’ would be used to ‘induct’ power and charge the device’s battery by wrapping the headphones around it.

Apple’s patent application, filed in early 2010 and published only today, says “The disclosed embodiments generally relate to techniques for charging portable electronic devices.”

“More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a technique that uses an audio cable as an inductive charging coil for a portable electronic device,” the summary reads.

Entitled "Using an Audio Cable as an Inductive Charging Coil," the invention proposes winding an iPod’s audio cable around a cylinder multiple times to form a coil for inductive receiving of energy.

“The disclosed embodiments relate to a technique for inductively charging an electronic device,” reads the abstract.

“This technique involves winding an audio cable for the electronic device around a charging mechanism multiple times so that one or more conductors in the audio cable form an inductive receiving coil,” Apple explains.

“Next, a magnetic field is created through the charging mechanism to induce a current in the inductive receiving coil.”

According to the documentation, the headphones would remain plugged into the media player as the device is being charged.

As the wires attached to the headphones are wrapped around the charging tower, the user would attach a contact from one of the earphones back to the device to close the circuit and effectively achieve what Apple refers to as an “inductive charging coil.”

“Finally, the induced current in the inductive receiving coil is used to charge a rechargeable battery for the electronic device,” Apple adds.

The inventors credited for this invention are: Rothkopf, Fletcher R. (Los Altos, CA, US); Shedletsky, Anna-katrina (Sunnyvale, CA, US); and Lynch, Stephen Brian (Portola Valley, CA, US).