The terms “game-changing” and “leading-edge” are frequently thrown around in the tech world and all too often end up being a letdown. While on a recent visit to the boutique game system maker, Maingear, Laptop Mag editor-in-chief, Sherri L. Smith, Operations Editor Peter Norman, and I were introduced to a new wireless power delivery system that is not only game-changing but could revolutionize the way we power our homes and offices.
Our initial introduction to Quaze technology happened while visiting with CEO Wallace Santos and Managing Director, Ron Reed as they shared some of Maingear's latest gaming systems and laptops. Like the charming showman he is, Santos had one more trick up his sleeve. After leading us to a backroom office with a gleaming white table; he picked up what appeared to be a mason jar and placed it on the table and as his hand approached the table, the LED lights within the jar magically lit up, and he looked over and smiled at us.
Santos and Reed shared that Maingear had invested in a company from Canada called Quaze, which is developing the future of wireless power delivery. Sherri, Peter, and I stood silently as they discussed the possible applications in gaming, the office, and the home; the future of wireless power is coming. Unlike Qi technology, you don’t have to be in contact with just one small surface area. Instead, the entire surface can deliver power to multiple devices at the same time and vastly more power than Qi is capable of handling.
We immediately arranged for an exclusive full demonstration at Maingear's secret lab with team members from Quaze, as we were intrigued by this groundbreaking technology.
What is Quaze
Back in 2014, Quaze Technologies was founded by Xavier Bidaut and Philippe Boulanger, both former rocket engineers and three-time consecutive winners of the international IREC rocket competition. So, yeah, the Quaze team is obviously brilliant. And supposedly, I’m a pretty smart guy, but I would end up babbling for hours at you if I tried to explain what Quaze is, so I will simply quote the release Ron Reed shared with me.
“Quaze Wireless Power utilizes a patented expandable surface that shapes a planar magnetic field to deliver reliable wireless power. These surfaces can be connected to power small and large areas alike, floors, walls, ceilings, desks, tables, etc. After years of development, Quaze’s technology was recently tested and met requirements for safety regulations, and emits less
electromagnetic radiation than a cell phone.”
In layman's terms, Quaze creates a truly wireless power experience via a safe-to-humans electromagnetic field capable of delivering up to 500W of power placed within 3 to 4 inches of the non-metallic surface, which can be placed beneath or behind a surface like the aforementioned desk or walls. In my old neighborhood, our local genius nerd hood rat would say, “they on some Nikola Tesla s**t..”
Quaze features
● Eliminate wires with true Wireless Power Delivery
● Patented surface that shapes a planar magnetic field
● Provides wireless power transmission over any non-metallic surface regardless of size
● Multi-point & multi-device wireless charging
● Up to 500w of power delivery
● Volumetric power- Powers devices 3-4 inches above the charging surface
● Recently tested in laboratories for safety regulation and meets the requirements
A truly wireless future
During the demonstration given to us by Boulanger and Quaze CSO Roy, we watched as they placed a gaming monitor down on a Quaze-treated table. After about five seconds, it powered up along with several lights while charging an iPhone, iPad and powering an RGB-lit mousepad. The Quaze wireless power surface can deliver up to 500W of continuous power to your devices. Picture a world where your desktop, laptop, monitors, smartphones, and tablets are all being powered or charged simply by being within the proximity of a Quaze surface without the need for messy, intrusive wires running everywhere. That is the future Quaze and Maingear are attempting to make a reality.
Standing there, watching everything near the Quaze surface light up, turn on, and charge, I saw a future with less copper wiring required to build homes; imagine how much money that could save; it could change how homes are designed and built.
Imagine, as Roy, Boulanger, and Santos explained during our video interview, “so our technology is leading edge, as you said, because it turns any surface into a power source that can push electricity to as many devices as you need. So we can turn a wall, a table, or a counter into a power source and move things on it wirelessly and give them all the energy that they need.”
So if the walls in your home contain the Quaze wireless power delivery technology, it eliminates the need for outlets. Your TV is hung on the wall and automatically powered, while a nearby lamp is safely powered. Now picture that your kitchen surface contains Quaze wireless power delivery technology – the possibilities are endless for home construction. Plus, it’s actually safer than having outlets that young children try to stick objects into.
The technology can also revolutionize the office. Instead of outlets everywhere and subflooring for each office building level which normally contains miles of copper electric wiring for every outlet, you now have Quaze-powered surfaces. When I asked if Quaze technology can power your whole home and use less copper wiring, Boulanger explained, “Well, eventually, we're going to be able to Quaze your entire house. But for now, we're working with desks. That's going to be our first approach. And then we're going to be working to Quaze your wall. You're ceiling, your floors. Then that's going to be your one wire house, where everything will be powered, wireless through our technology.”
This is the future that Quaze and Maingear are working hard to bring to us within the next year, starting in the gaming arena. Without wires dangling everywhere, your desk or gaming battle station will look tight on camera while streaming.
Why I'm excited about Quaze
During our interview, the takeaway message is that neither Maingear nor Quaze want to make the technology proprietary, as many companies would. Why, you might ask? Because both companies believe that it's something Nikola Tesla himself believed in wholeheartedly. Technology belongs to the people to improve their lives and to create a better future. That's why, although they've had the opportunity to sell, they’ve resisted the temptation.
When I asked if Quaze technology would be proprietary tech to Maingear, Santos said, “No, it's too important of a technology to be proprietary to anyone.” Honestly, I say it with conviction when I say, I think they're going to change the world.
Santos’s eyes lit up every time he discussed ensuring this technology makes it into the hands, homes, and offices of people worldwide. When we asked, how do you see this technology impacting mobile computing and how do you see it impacting gamers? Santos said “ Yeah, I mean, just look at a gaming setup or a battle station, right? Like you can see the array of cables that are literally going to every device that's plugged in. And then you look under the desk of a battle station and it's basically a rat's nest. Being a gamer, you want your setup to look beautiful as well, not just perform, right?
But, and that's what we are in the business of: we are actually making sexy, beautiful, high-performing computers. So it doesn't end with a tower; it doesn't end with a laptop. It's a complete package.”
For their part, Boulanger and Roy also explained why the technology is safe, stating, “So basically, even before doing the demonstration, we did go through all the certification measurements to make sure it's safe. It's already known how radio frequencies interact with the human body, and we passed all of those measurements. It's even safer than a cell phone. And we also chose a physical principle that was able to provide power safely for humans, from these really small devices with small power to the really big devices with big powers, because we don't want our technology to be just for toys. We want it to be everywhere in the house. And to be able to do that, we need to work with humans and really high power.”
In a world ruled by wires, Quaze's wireless power delivery system could truly become a lit beacon of hope. In the near future, wireless technology could be that and extend beyond smartphones and other small gadgets. A Quaze-powered lamp could light the way for the next generation of physicists, engineers, and doctors. And Tesla’s dream of wireless power delivery could finally come to fruition, which would please the late inventor far more than a company profiting from using his moniker for expensive cars. Imagine instead that his vision, his passion, shared by the teams at Maingear and Quaze quite literally lights up our lives and changes the way we power our world.
