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NEW YORK - In the office of the future, desk jockeys who cannot live without cell phones, BlackBerrys and iPods will be able to charge up such devices just by putting them on their desks.
Office furniture maker Herman Miller Inc. has a license from Fulton Innovation for
eCoupled, a system that eliminates the need for dedicated chargers, said Herman Miller spokesman Mark Schurman in a telephone interview.
"Hallelujiah!" said Jim Lynch, director of the Association of Professional Office Managers.
A desk equipped with eCoupled would save money on adapters, said Lynch, who would recommend it to his 8,000 members.
"Those things are 30 bucks each and if you have 50 people in your office the cost really adds up," Lynch said.
Fulton Innovation is a subsidiary of privately held Alticor, parent of network marketing company Amway.
eCoupled transfers power through a magnetic field, so only the eCoupled device itself needs electricity. Everything else charges upon contact with the magnetic field, David Hazlett of Fulton Innovation said in an interview with Reuters.
Privately held Splashpower sells similar technology for portable electronic devices, but Fulton Innovation sees a cordless world with eCoupled powering everything from cell phones to blenders to lamps, Hazlett said.
Herman Miller is embedding eCoupled in desktops and considering other uses, Schurman said.
The company would not say when the desk might make it to market, or how much it would cost.
Auto parts maker Visteon Corp. and telephone maker Motorola Inc. are also working with eCoupled, Hazlett said.
Visteon plans a summer release of a charger that plugs into a car's cigarette lighter and will cost less than US$100 ($144), said spokeswoman Melissa Andrade in a telephone interview.
But no mobile devices will have eCoupled built in by that time, so Visteon customers will have to purchase an adapter from Mobility Electronics Inc., said Walter Thornton of Mobility Electronics.
Available this summer, the adapter will be able to work with Motorola phones, Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod Shuffle and other gadgets, Thornton said.
He would not comment on price or where it would be sold.
Phonemakers will embed eCoupled soon after Visteon releases its product, Hazlett said.
However, Motorola would not comment and Lynch refuses to get really excited until Motorola is on board.
"I'm hoping that they do get the (device) manufacturers to buy into this so that it doesn't fizzle out," Lynch added.
- REUTERS