Cisc’s Hannes Mock Is Climbing Upward

Hannes Mock is head of our Wireless Charging Task Force, but he enjoys much more than just taking charge of the task force. We thought a member spotlight on Mock would be a perfect opportunity to learn more about him. You can often find Mock hiking and climbing where he can enjoy the beautiful nature that Australia has to offer. Did we mention that Mock also enjoys playing tennis in his spare time?

We asked Hannes Mock a few questions about his involvements with the NFC Forum. Here is what he had to say.

Q1. You head the Wireless Charging Task Force.  What is its goal and how are things going?

The goal is to develop a specification that covers the market need and allow testing to ensure consistent and interoperable use cases worldwide. Due to the hard work of the Wireless Charging Task Force members, we had been able to publish the first Version of the Wireless Charging Specification in May 2020. Currently we are focusing on improvements and extensions of the Specification

Q2. The PR announcement introducing the wireless charging specification generated the most website traffic in a couple years.  Why do you think there is so much interest?

For me WLC is the next big thing beyond Wireless Payment. There are billions of IoT devices out and everything should get smarter, smaller and more user friendly. Also, most of them should come without any wired connection to make the handling as easy as possible and they should be usable everywhere.

And now WLC combines those attributes in a way that small battery driven IoT devices can be charged everywhere in a smart way where communication and power transfer are done over a single antenna without any additional cabling.

Q3. What are some of the key roles as head of the wireless charging task force? 

To motivate all stakeholders, from silicon vendors to OEMs to application developers, implementers. to work together on a specification for a new application which will be THE standard to enable wireless charging of small battery driven devices.

Q4. What is one benefit of joining the wireless charging task force? 

To address market requirements and new technologies which are allowing to setup up a global WLC ecosystem. Further, the participation on meetings which are allowing you to be one step ahead others if new things are designed.