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Physicists Promise Wireless Power

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the having-a-hard-time-buying-it dept.

StrongGlad writes "The tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today's electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at MIT have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power wirelessly to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players. In a nutshell, their solution entails installing special 'non-radiative' antennae with identical resonant frequencies on both the power transmitter and the receiving device. Any energy not diverted into a gadget or appliance is simply reabsorbed. The system currently under development is designed to operate at distances of 3 to 5 meters, but the researchers claim that it could be adapted to factory-scale applications, or miniaturized for use in the 'microscopic world.'"

7 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. That would be really cool to see... by brennanw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... and the subsequent and inevitable lawsuits brought about by people convinced that the wireless power technology is giving them cancer would probably get a little tiresome.

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    1. Re:That would be really cool to see... by TobascoKid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      From the BBC Article:

      5) Energy not transferred to laptop re-absorbed by source antenna. People/other objects not affected as not resonating at 6.4Mhz

      That was at the bottom of the graphic. So it should be safe (however, seeing as the technology only exists as a computer model and not as reality, I would bet that if there are any safety issues they will only come to light after such a device is actually built)

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  2. 100 years later... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Three Cheers for Nikola Tesla!

  3. Problems by Solokron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This would bring an entirely new scale of issues. People getting arrested for wireless power theft would be cute.

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  4. You have a point. by brennanw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... there might be health issues -- but I suspect there will be lawsuits whether there are health issues or not.

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  5. Re:Discovered???!??!?? by q-the-impaler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My understanding was that it wasn't pursued because Tesla marketed it as "Free Power" and no company was interested in giving people free anything at that time. Oh, wait, nothing's changed.

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  6. Re:6.4Mhz - Oh Dear. by profplump · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If only we could build a cable where the signal was transmitted on a wire totally encased by an EM shield -- with the interior signal wire running down the central axis of the exterior shield. That would be handy for stopping stray EM on the cable network.