The consortium also needs to establish testing bodies to certify products as standards-compliant, and it's not prepared to say yet when the first qualifying products will appear.

Companies seem keen to get products out quickly, however. Those selling charging units today say they charge as quickly as plugging devices into a wall outlet. There is some loss in the system, however, and the technology being standardized is only about 70 percent efficient, Treffers said, meaning it is not a particularly green way to charge devices.

"We're not selling this as a solution to global warming," he said, "it will appeal to consumers because it is magical." The standard will conform to regulatory requirements for efficiency, however, and the group will try to get it approved under Energy Star guidelines. He added that manufacturers can make their products more energy-efficient with additional technology investments.

Charging mats will recognize when a device is fully charged and then consume a trickle of energy in standby mode, Treffers said. "We have demonstrated standby power in the micro-watt range," he said, displaying a slide that showed standby consumption of 0.0001 watts. The coils can be made small enough to fit inside a Bluetooth headset.

Treffers was involved in the standards-setting process for Blu-ray, which took several years to complete. He said he learned lessons from that experience and is determined the wireless power effort will go more smoothly.