Wireless power 'eliminates chargers'

Intel showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionise modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.

Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link as he spoke at the California firm's annual developers forum in San Francisco.

Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer.

Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.

"The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently," Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.

"It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field."

Examples of potential applications include airports, offices or other buildings that could be rigged to supply power to laptops, mobile telephones or other devices toted into them.

The technology could also be built into plugged in computer components, such as monitors, to enable them to broadcast power to devices left on desks or carried into rooms, according to Smith.

"Initially it eliminates chargers and eventually it eliminates batteries all together," analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of Intel's wireless power system.

"That is potentially a world changing event. This is the closest we've had to something being commercially available in this class."

Previous wireless power systems consisted basically of firing lightning bolts from sending to receiving units.

Smith says Intel's wireless power system is still in an early stage of development and much research remains before it can be brought to market.

Rattner spoke of technological transformations he expects by the year 2050.

"You'd like to cut the last cord," Smith said.

"It's great that we have wireless email and wireless internet and stuff like that but at the end of the day it would be nice to have wireless recharge as well."

AFP

http://www.theage.com.au/news/articles/wireless-power-eliminates-chargers/2008/08/22/1219262494935.html

Good Lord almighty. Or "Science be praised" if that's how you roll.

Put me into a coma and wake me up in 40 years.

lol, steve you are funny that´s why I love you man.

SY*&^# that will make life even more easy, i bet this will insure that the population becomes even fatter

Question 1: How many watts of power did it take to power the system that wirelessly powers the 60W bulb?
If the answer is much more than 60W, so much more that it eliminates the advantages of a battery free world, then it is a wasteful technology (inefficient).

Question 2: What will this do to the iron in our testicles?
(yes I read that humans are not affected by magnetic fields.)

If this is based on the technology that was being demonstrated at MIT a couple years ago, it would use approx. 75 watts. (I can't find the link, but the MIT tech had a 25% waste initially) I think they got it down to 15%-20%, but I haven't heard anything about this tech for almost a year.

Well, from what i read, they had a 25% power loss, so they had to give 80 KW of energy to make it happen. And this is pretty much experimental tech, this can go REALLY far if they enchance it later on.

Looking good, all there is to say.

I wonder how long (after this is released) it will take for a smart dude to change the transmitor so it works as a weapon so you can zap people around you using it.

Answer 1) There was an article on this on cnn.com a few days ago, and if I remember correctly, at 3 feet (about a meter) away, they said they got up to 75-80% efficiency. Both IBM and a team at MIT have been working on this technology for a little while now. I'll try to find the article.

Edit: Here

Answer 2) I'm not a medical doctor or a physicist, but I refuse to believe that have all of this extra ambient energy going about all around us won't hurt at all. If cell phone radiation has the possibility to give us brain tumors, then think of what being exposed to many more times that energy can do to our bodies.

So, will I be able to tap into my neighbor's wireless power, along with his internet?