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Future Desks to Charge Gadgets Wirelessly
IronMan writes "Future desks may allow us to charge our phones, iPods, PDAs and other gadgets wirelessly. Office equipment maker Herman Miller is one of the first companies to license the eCoupled inductive coupling technology from Fulton Innovation, Engadget reports. The desk will allows wireless transfer of energy through a magnetic field. Motorola is working together with eCoupled, but still is not sure when the first consumer devices with this technology will appear on the market. From the article: 'Of course, cordless charging isn't an entirely new concept, with HP recently showing off some of its own ideas for juiced-up furniture, and Splashpower talking up its charge-on-contact system for a few years now. We guess we'll just have to wait and see if this new power-happy desk becomes the same status symbol for the Web 2.0 crowd that Herman Miller's Aeron chair was back in Web 1.0 days -- assuming we haven't moved on to Web 3.0 by the time the desk actually comes out, that is.'"
The wireless transfer of energy through magnetic fields is called electromagnetic induction, and it's been a well-known phenomenon since 1831. It's also currently used the world over: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer
Life would be easier if I had the source code.
Nikola Tesla beat you to the punch by about 100 years or so. (Edison can suck it!)
"Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience."
Wireless mouse. Seems kind of stupid though. It's like a wired mouse without the wire connected to the mouse itself.
Yes, the "magnetic radiation" is not strong enough to break chemical bonds but it may still affect the nervous system or other systems of the body.
I can't possibly see how. Most systems in the body depend on oxidation/reduction reactions, the cleavage/formation of phosphate bonds, or Na/K ion channels. Most elements present in vivo don't even have spin-active nuclei. Even if they get in excited spin states, that doesn't affect their reactivity in any meaningful way.
Therefore one cannot claim that low frequency EM radiation is completely safe or definitely harmful.
Let me walk you through what various kinds of radiation can do, in order of increasing energy.
Radio waves: excite nuclear spin states. This won't cook food. This is where most "Magnetic Radiation" comes from. This isn't known to make chemical reactions happen that wouldn't otherwise happen. Radio waves are so ubiquitous that if you believe that low-freq Radio Waves are harmful, you may as well kill yourself now. Won't cause cancer, but has led to the proliferation of junk science.
Microwaves: molecular rotation (stuff tumbles around). This cooks food (if there's a dipole). This will make chemical reactions (that would normally happen) happen faster in the same way that applying heat would. Won't cause cancer, but will burn you.
IR: molecular vibration (stretches chemical bonds). Heats stuff (think of a broiler or heat lamp). Might cause chemical bonds to break if you pump enough energy into it. Won't cause cancer, but will burn you.
Uv-Visible light: Excites electrons in transition metals and highly-unsaturated/aromatic organics (some DNA bases are aromatic organics). Makes stuff emit photons when relaxing from excited states (fluorescence, phosphorescence, etc.). Has been linked to skin cancer.
X-rays: ionizing radiation. Hits heavier nuclei (transitions and lower p-blocks) and creates ions, which can then react with things around them. Causes health problems. Best avoided.
Say 50Hz might be safe but 120Hz might cause you to hallucinate or something like that.
120 Hz better not--it's the first overtone of the AC power found in much of the world. This is one small step above searching for The Brown Note.