Patent ID: 7511452

Claim:
An electronic apparatus comprising: a portable electronic device and a charger for capacitively charging said portable electronic device; said portable electronic device comprising a housing, a device data communication unit and an associated battery carried by the housing, and at least one pair of device capacitive electrodes carried by said housing to receive a charging signal to charge said battery, the at least one pair of device capacitive electrodes defining a device conductive footprint; said charger comprising a base having an area larger than the device conductive footprint and able to receive said portable electronic device thereon in a plurality of different positions, an array of charger capacitive electrodes carried by said base, a charger controller including a charging signal generator, a switching circuit connected between said charging signal generator and said charger capacitive electrodes, a control circuit connected to said switching circuit, and an impedance detector connected to said control circuit, the charger controller for selectively driving only said charger capacitive electrodes within the device conductive footprint with a charging signal to capacitively charge said battery of said portable electronic device when said portable electronic device is positioned on said base of said charger, and a charger data communication unit to communicate with said device data communication unit via said charger capacitive electrodes and device capacitive electrodes.