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Ransom Riggs
Who needs batteries?
by Ransom Riggs - June 11, 2007 - 12:46 PM

wirelesselectricity.jpgHeavy, clumsy, expensive and toxic, batteries are a royal pain. Fortunately for users of cellphones, laptops and other devices that need frequent charging, those lab-coated heroes in white — yep, scientists — are working on a solution: WiTricity. Researchers at MIT have developed a technology inspired by the turn-of-the-century dreams of electro-genius Nikola Tesla, which efficiently transmits electricity in all directions in about a seven-foot range. Meanwhile, other elctromagnetic fields, such as those surrounding computers, cell phones, and human beings, remain largely unaffected.

The scientists were able to light up a 60-watt bulb that had “no physical connection” with the power-generating appliance. “It was quite exciting,” MIT Prof. Marin Soljacic said. The process is “very reproducible,” he added. “We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want.”

Right now, WiTricity can only power devices up to about 100 watts, and it still suffers from some energy wastage. Considering that it’s still in the early stages of development, however, I’d say the future of electricity looks bright — and wireless.

Link via Ecogeek.

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Comments (8)

  1. I don’t know about this, do we really want another electromagnetic field working in a very high frequency hanging around our airspace?

    I hope they look into all the aspects of this technology before they try to market it.

    On the other hand…cool!!!

    posted by Ignacio Rosenberg on 6-11-2007 at 2:00 pm

  2. CANCER! CANCER! CANCER! CANCER! lol i can hear it already… hope all the kinks are worked out.

    posted by ajadoniz on 6-11-2007 at 7:45 pm

  3. …I gotta wear shades.

    posted by Bassman on 6-12-2007 at 5:41 am

  4. Relax. These devices are already everywhere around us in the form of transformers. (No, not the robots.)

    Every “power brick”, gas engine (the coil), and power line out there is using this technology already. The only difference is that these transformers use the coils to raise or lower the voltage; a process called stepping.

    The only thing unique about this solution is that they put the coils some distance apart.

    Besides this technology won’t catch on until someone figures out how to authenticate users. It just would not do to give power away to anyone walking by.

    posted by n2y2 on 6-12-2007 at 8:30 am

  5. Everything Old is New Again! Read Heinlein’s “Waldo”, from so long ago that the pages of the book are yellow and crumbly. Broadcast power as a boon/menace.

    posted by ArtW on 6-12-2007 at 12:37 pm

  6. I seem to recall that this was one of the top 100 april fools jokes. How bizarre to see it come true afterall.

    posted by matt on 6-12-2007 at 10:13 pm

  7. What ended Teslas developement of his invention was that his financial backer J.P. Morgan pulled out because no one could figure out how to charge(authenticate) customers. More info at the website www(dot)teslatech(dot)info/
    ttmagazine/v1n4/valone(dot)htm

    posted by tdave on 6-22-2007 at 3:24 am

  8. Not sure about being surrounded by a really strong magnetic field (is that how this works?), but until it becomes a reality, there’s some new batteries that can be charged via USB, so no need for a charger…

    posted by Nigel on 9-26-2007 at 4:53 pm

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