Your annoying mate could soon be able to nick your phone's battery charge

A patent has been filed for a system that transfers energy from one device to another by converting it to radio waves and then back into energy

Every group has that one friend who's just a taker, mooching off everybody else (if you don't know who this person is in your circle of friends, it's you). Good news for that one person, though: Sony has patented a system that even lets them mooch battery power from their mates' phones.

Filed in 2016, the patent is an evolution of existing wireless charging concepts, based on transmitting power through an (unspecified) antenna-based system. Prototypes like startup WattUp's concept, which uses radio frequencies to beam power to devices show the basic idea of the system is sound, but Sony wants to take it one step further.