Wireless electricity is already beginning to creep into the mainstream, with gadgets emerging on the market that charge your portable electronics via a charging station emitting wireless electricity over a short distance.

In its current form, this technology is quite basic, but if developed further and fully integrated into the built environment, it has the potential to transform our interactions with the city.

At present, if you want to charge a portable electronic object, you need to plug it in. If you have a wireless electricity dock, you need to insert it into charging case and sit it on or near the dock.

Imagine if the range was increased and the need for charging cases was removed. Wireless electricity could be fitted into the walls of buildings, much like plug sockets already are, and consumer goods would begin charging the moment they entered a building. Televisions, computers, washing machines and all other electrical items would no longer need to be connected via wires, removing the annoying cable jungle behind every computer desk, and reducing restrictions within interior design.

If this technology was taken out of the building and into the road, the major problem with electric cars - the battery - could be bypassed. If electric cars took their charge from wireless electricity-emitting roads, batteries with a large capacity would not be needed, reducing the cost of these vehicles considerably. This reduced cost would encourage mass-adoption, turning automobiles into a more environmentally friendly tool. And other technologies would inevitably emerge based around the unique potential of wireless electricity.

Imagine if your interactions weren’t restricted to the physical limitations of accessing an electrical charge. What changes can you see emerging in the built environment?

Image via Clav on flickr.