Video: eCoupled fires up its wireless Foreman grill and cooks us a burger

You might remember how excited we were to send Veronica Belmont over to eCoupled's booth at CES for a demo of the company's wireless Foreman grill, only to be bitterly disappointed when the reps claimed to have "power problems" and didn't really demo anything at all. Well, as it turns out, there was an eCoupled engineer on our flight home from Vegas, and after showing us his wirelessly-charging laptop, he promised us a video of the Foreman in action. And... it's a video of a dude cooking a burger. Sure, the grill is wireless -- but come on, where's the showmanship? Let's at least put a hula hoop around it, people. That said, we can see a lot of potential for the tech if it gets ubiquitous -- let's just hope the sales team has a little more of the ol' vaudeville spirit in 'em, eh? Check the video after the break.

[Kyle Simmons @ Feb 7th 2008 7:43PM]

"I'm going to stand here and let it cook"

Lol

[Asha @ Feb 7th 2008 9:33PM]

You'd think that they'd have him take the time to talk about the technology involved, expansive applications and such.

[Chris @ Feb 7th 2008 7:45PM]

Errr... did anyone else notice that he handled raw meat and then touched his bap without washing his hands! :o.

[bob @ Feb 7th 2008 9:05PM]

Yeah, I noticed that too. That guy's got a long night ahead of him.

[Ted @ Feb 7th 2008 11:57PM]

Meh, real men eat their hamburgers raw.

[MARSHAK @ Feb 8th 2008 12:28PM]

then you go ahead and be a real man. The rest of us have to wake up and go to work or school tomorrow.

[nh @ Feb 8th 2008 5:17AM]

He did at least use different hands...

[YourTechSupport @ Feb 7th 2008 7:48PM]

I can't wait to see this technology find its way into real products.

[Bill @ Feb 7th 2008 7:55PM]

So am I to understand it has a range of about 6 inches? Ummm....so what? I assume it can power things at greater distances, or else big deal.

[ethan @ Feb 7th 2008 7:52PM]

wait, did I read that correctly? wireless grill? That's as important as a wireless pillow and wireless sink.

I'm kiddin. Does this send a charge wirelessly? I previously thought that to be impossible. Impossible or dangerous. I don't know if I want electrical charge through the air. I can see a whole new "brain tumor" story emerging from this technology.

[pball_inuyasha @ Feb 7th 2008 8:00PM]

it's not wireless like a wireless phone, if you notice he has to have it on the stand and the grill has a base on it. This uses basically coils of wires to make a magnetic charge then the grill also has coils of wires to turn the magnetic field back into usable power. I'm fairly sure that's how this works.

it's the same as the wireless phone/ipod charger from a while ago.

All fine an dandy but you have to have to two things touching so not the good kind of wireless

[DarkLightConnection @ Feb 7th 2008 9:03PM]

Every transformer does that in every power supply you have in your house... (even SMPS have small-ish transformers)... the only difference is that on a transformer the only thing that isolates both coils is the dielectric that is on the coil wire itself, and on this, that's two whole plastic layers (the cases), and you won't be putting your head in between

[John @ Feb 7th 2008 9:16PM]

The technology isn't wireless like, "now I can carry my grill with me anywhere in my house while cooking", but wireless like "I just have to put the grill on top of the counter and presto". For this sort of thing, it's really more useful than true wireless power, as otherwise your neighbors could be grilling beef on your dollar!

[Asha @ Feb 7th 2008 9:38PM]

This technology is in its infancy right now. The ultimate goal is to create something that can have a large range effect for powering any sort of device that is enabled to receive the energy 'signal' and still be completely 'safe'.

[ethan @ Feb 8th 2008 1:55AM]

wait wait, I get it.

Sonicare toothbrush did this years ago. It's that base that sits without any wires connecting.

After awhile, however, it yellowed the plastic where the charger went.

Meh, mildly impressive, I suppose. I thought wireless charging like, "base station in one room, device working in other room."

but this makes sense. Nothing to yell about.

[Magnulus @ Feb 8th 2008 4:22AM]

I don't know how many cables there are in YOUR kitchen, but if I could just have ONE power cable on the counter that goes to a charging station like that rather than the five plugs for my three sockets that I currently have, I'd be a happy camper.

If I had a base charging station for my computer, I could charge a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, an external harddrive or two and my USB hub with ONE cable going for the power. That's a huge advantage for me. You might enjoy the cable spaghetti around your computer, but I'd personally be able to do without it.

[mike @ Feb 7th 2008 8:00PM]

I think the meat tastes better on my xbox 360. lol

[John @ Feb 7th 2008 9:30PM]

Introducing the George Foreman Special Edition XBOX 360 with built in processor-heating grill

[Chris @ Feb 7th 2008 8:09PM]

That was kind of awkward. He was just standing there for like 80% of the video. All it would have taken to break the ice was a comment like "so... how 'bout that Obama?" That's all.

[austin @ Feb 7th 2008 8:34PM]

OBAMA FO YO MOMMA

[Ireland @ Feb 7th 2008 9:41PM]

But if he mentioned Obama I would have gone off and watch some Obama videos and forgot about this one.

[Ted @ Feb 8th 2008 12:41AM]

Totally! It actually cracked me up watching the guy standing there without saying anything. It's sort of like something out of Monty Python.

[r0fl @ Feb 7th 2008 8:17PM]

LOL he flipped it.... it's heated on both sides you silly goose HAHA

[Eric @ Feb 7th 2008 8:41PM]

You have one dont you r0fl!
heheheh

[jbcaro @ Feb 7th 2008 8:20PM]

All it needed was the theme to "Jeopardy".

[Caustic @ Feb 7th 2008 8:45PM]

The technology has been demo'd before. Where's the smoke. Does this thing cook a hamburger inside without setting off the fire alarm. Where's the smoke?

[Brian @ Feb 7th 2008 8:49PM]

Wheat Bread, WI/American cheese, onions, light jelly spread.
Foreman it = best grilled cheese ever.

[Ted @ Feb 8th 2008 12:36AM]

Hang on a second, what do you mean by jelly? As in strawberry jelly? o_O?
I'm scared.

[Oskin @ Feb 8th 2008 11:48AM]

I concur... Whats with the jelly in a grilled cheese????

[Doug @ Feb 7th 2008 9:24PM]

I need a ecoupled enabled monitor or whole computer.. I hate these WIRES!

[nVidiot @ Feb 7th 2008 9:14PM]

It'd be kindof cool if this technology became a standard so your cell phones and iPods and whatnot would all come with a standard contact plate on the back to lay them down on a board like that.

And if the board were built into the kitchen counter, or like the top of a low bookshelf or the top of a desk for powering speakers, computer monitors, etc.

[Caustic by Nature @ Feb 7th 2008 9:34PM]

nVidiot, kitchen ovens are already on the market today with the same technology.

It's cool, and it's got to be safer for kids.

[m @ Feb 7th 2008 9:20PM]

not to rain on anybody's parade, but i believe cavemen also had wireless cooking technology. i think it's called fire.

[Eric @ Feb 7th 2008 9:32PM]

I hate to rain on his parade, but that grease must be running off all over his fancy pants wireless grill enabler.

[Super S @ Feb 7th 2008 10:14PM]

That's not wireless. This is wireless in the conventional sense that I was thinking/hoping.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-01/electricity-air

Just need some more development time :(

[xthaox @ Feb 7th 2008 10:38PM]

They should have featured Veronica cooking the burger, it'll taste much better

[mushrooshi @ Feb 7th 2008 10:43PM]

Veronica Belmont.

[shoe465 @ Feb 9th 2008 10:55AM]

I beleive the technology is created so that you don't need 50 different chargers in one area and you can just set your phone, mp3 player, laptop, etc... on the pad and it charges it more effciently than a wall charger.

[Ted @ Feb 8th 2008 12:45AM]

Arrgh, travesty, he pressed down on the burger with his spatula. Way to squeeze the juice out. Not only that but the juice will come out, heat up, and steam the meat. Burgers these days.

[Ted @ Feb 8th 2008 12:46AM]

It would have been easier for them just to have plugged a normal George Forman directly into the wall.

[Darkest Daze @ Feb 8th 2008 5:21AM]

And now I'll show off my wireless cell phone charger. Just let me set it on top of this plate that's plugged into the same socket I would of normally plugged the cell phone into. Best of all, it only takes up 10x's more space than the cell phone alone.

[Precision @ Feb 8th 2008 10:00AM]

i think the whole point of the system is in future application. so in the future the technology could be included in your cooking table and other surfaces.
seems to be more cosmetic then anything else though. not sure if the price that would cost would be worth it.