News MIT man says wireless power is coming

well what about this?
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/wec.shtml
it works well you just dont want to be in between the invisible beam or else you might smell somthing cooking lol

 

I like the "WARNING" covers just about everything including "living things" !!

 

If anyone is interested, there's a similar article published in an MIT paper called Tech Talk found here:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/techtalk-info.html

Just download the current issue.

 

As trailblazer says, that is indeed quite the warning:

Glass?

 

Hmm, although it would be a nice idea, what about pacemakers and cochlear implants etc which are sensitive to electrical interference, we don't want people suddenly dropping dead .

Or would the "non-radiative electromagnetic field" statement be my answer?

 

No No, the batteries in the pace makers would be charged too. As for the WEC, I want one. How much power can it transmit?
I think this would be a good idea, like the laptop wireless points having wireless power too, so no vandalism of the power sockets, would just be a desk.

 

beat me to it.

I like the idea of not having to plug in my phone anymore, everything else can be wireless but I doubt we will see anything like this anytime soon. I also wonder about the efficiency of this and how much it will affect its surroundings.

 

The main point of the whole theory is this idea is that power can be transmitted wirelessly without wasting it while it is not being used. Wireless power is not new but because of the fact that electromagnetic induction wastes energy into the atmosphere and other surrounding objects it requires a rediculous amount of power to transmit the power over a significant distance.

Whether we will see this technology power our phones, cameras, headphones, speakers, keyboards, mice the moment they are within range depends on two things. Firstly the technology has to work as the theory says it does (frankly seems a little implausible to me). Secondly it has to be efficient enough that running a few wireless power devices doesn't significantly increase energy bills. I would imagine that even if it requires 10 times the energy to charge your phone wirelessly vs using a cable you probably wouldn't notice. But if you wanted to power your big 7.1 surround sound speaker system wirelessly it would probably make a big difference to your bills.

I think given these conditions, something like this has a massive chance of success. It's like when the CCD became available everyone realised the big potential for digital cameras. With the increasing demand the technology got better which increased demand further. That's what can happen if a new technology realises it's potential. Even so it took about 30 years to develop into something that could be used comercially. And remember, they haven't even built a working model yet. So I'd estimate we wouldn't see this kind of thing in portable size devices for at least 20-30 years. This may seem like a long time but think how long people have been working to create minature fuel cells.

 

Like in "The Prestige"?

I've been wondering if this was at all possible for a while. I never did any searches to see if it had been researched yet or not though, so this is very interesting. I've always wondered how much energy is inside the radio waves being broadcasted around the world and into space. Is there no way to just have a machine that picks them up and converts them into usable electrical power?

 

Batteries?

Of course, I'd like proper wireless power a bit better.

HourBeforeDawn, you a DGW listener too? I was looking to post the same thing

 

Well actually, I would still like batteries, as what happens when you move out of the power grid? sudden lost of power. Batteries would still be a must.

 

Wireless power... handy

 

Ha, wireless, electric lawnmower, that the antenna is plugged into my neighbors outdoor power socket. Howdy neighbor!