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Intel Claims an Advance In Wireless Power

Many readers are sending in coverage of a demo at Intel's developer forum of a wirelessly powered 60-watt bulb. The NYTimes gives background on Intel's improvement to the 'wireless resonant energy link' technology pioneered at MIT, where researchers achieved 50% efficiency of power transmitted several meters via magnetic fields. Intel reached 75% efficiency. Now they just have to make those coils a lot smaller.

14 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What a waste of energy by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Tesla wanted to do this on a large scale over a hundred years ago, and was prevented by his investors because there was no way to meter usage. He filed a patent for his concept in 1900. This technology is crippled and extremely late.

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    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  2. Re:Great Idea - Not there yet. by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Informative

    Magnetic field != radiation. Even a fluctuating magnetic field isn't going to effect humans

    As Maxwell showed with his equations, fluctuating magnetic field == radiation, by definition. (And is always associated with a corresponding fluctuating electrical field.)

    Your second statement is not always true either. For example, the fluctuating electromagnetic field inside a microwave oven would certainly affect humans.

  3. Re:What a waste of energy by chaim79 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think that's one of those "april fools" items... note the availability of it.

    --
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    AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.
    Shakespeare invents 'your mom'
  4. Re:What a waste of energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can't believe this got modded "Interesting" ... that thinkgeek item was released on April 1 quite a while ago .....

  5. Re:We're still playing catchup with Tesla! by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Informative

    How long ago did Tesla conceive of this, and we're still trying to keep up with the guy?

    One little problem: Tesla thought that he would transmit megawatts of power wirelessly over transcontinental distances. The idea, as he conceived it, was and is completely unworkable. (Which helps to explain why he died penniless.)

  6. Re:Tesla did this a long time ago. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    As to the supposed dangers of strong magnetic fields: Tesla spent his entire adult life around some of the strongest magnetic fields ever generated by man, and he died quietly in his sleep at the age of 87.

  7. Re:What a waste of energy by vsage3 · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is not a new technology but it is helpful to have refined, although the first use when the technology matures will be short range devices (1-2ft) not long range devices (10-20ft).

    Actually it IS a new technology. Anyone who is spouting off bombast about how Tesla came up with this a hundred years ago, or that we've been using this in transformers for years is WRONG. Transformers are not resonant devices and rather rely on the closeness of the windings/core to guide the majority of the field lines to the other winding. As for Tesla's work, he used strictly far field EM radiation, which differs fundamentally from this effect, which uses near-field interactions that tend to "stick" for lack of a better term to the power source unless transferred to another device capable of resonating with it. This is what makes this 2006 discovery so great because it is extremely efficient and doesn't rely on line of sight or broadcasting a huge amount of power so that a device a reasonable distance away can receive the power it needs to operate. According to the 2006 article ( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5834/83 ) the electric fields involved are small too: around 200V/m which is about double Earth's field at ground.

    And finally, The human body has little to no magnetic response which is why MRI's don't kill you with their multi-Tesla magnetic fields (the Earth's magnetic field is 0.5 Gauss = 1/20000 T, for reference)

  8. Re:What a waste of energy by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Informative

    Tesla wasn't a hacker like Edison. He was a visionary, who saw deeply into the inner workings of the universe at an intuitive level. He captured what he saw in the language of math, and created the foundations for the modern electric age almost singlehandedly. The HAARP project in Alaska is based on his work in this field.

    If he said it was possible within the laws of physics, personally, I believe him. He was probably the most important man in history.

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  9. Re:What a waste of energy by encoderer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here: The actual story I was referencing is the last one on this page. I remember it being a "driveway moment" for me -- I got home, and sat in the driveway until the story was over.

    (I had trouble w/ streaming -- but I clicked the "pop out" button and there's a download link from there. It's just an MP3)

    http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/01/25

  10. Re:What a waste of energy by mutende · · Score: 2, Informative

    That 60Hz is also a good B-flat in case you need to tune a musical instrument.

    Really? I thought it was a high F#. Or at least that is what it sounded like when my retarded half brother stuck a fork in the light socket.

    How Acoustic Guitars Work shows that 120 Hz is in-between B and A#, and 60 Hz is exactly one octave lower than 120 Hz.

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  11. Re:What a waste of energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Fanatics? No.. realistic. Tesla has been regarded as "The Father of Physics", "The man who invented the twentieth century" and "the patron saint of modern electricity." He's far from being a 'crackpot who got lucky'.

    Inventions include:

    Electromechanical devices and principles developed by Nikola Tesla:

            * Various devices that use rotating magnetic fields (1882)
            * The Induction motor, rotary transformers, and "high" frequency alternators
            * The Tesla coil,[31] his magnifying transmitter, and other means for increasing the intensity of electrical oscillations (including condenser discharge transformations and the Tesla oscillators[32][33])
            * Alternating current long-distance electrical transmission system[34] (1888) and other methods and devices for power transmission
            * Systems for wireless communication (prior art for the invention of radio) and radio frequency oscillators[35]
            * Robotics and the "AND" logic gate[36]
            * Electrotherapy Tesla currents[37][38][39]
            * Wireless transfer of electricity and the Tesla effect[40][41]
            * Tesla impedance phenonomena[42]
            * Tesla electro-static field
            * Tesla principle
            * Bifilar coil
            * Telegeodynamics
            * Tesla insulation
            * Tesla impulses[43]
            * Tesla frequencies[31]
            * Tesla discharge[31]
            * Forms of commutators and methods of regulating third brushes
            * Tesla turbines (eg., bladeless turbines) for water, steam and gas and the Tesla pumps
            * Tesla igniter
            * Tesla compressor
            * X-rays Tubes using the Bremsstrahlung process
            * Devices for ionized gases and "Hot Saint Elmo's Fire".[44]
            * Devices for high field emission
            * Devices for charged particle beams
            * Phantom streaming devices[45]
            * Arc light systems
            * Methods for providing extremely low level of resistance to the passage of electrical current (predecessor to superconductivity)
            * Voltage multiplication circuitry
            * Devices for high voltage discharges
            * Devices for lightning protection
            * VTOL aircraft
            * Dynamic theory of gravity
            * Concepts for electric vehicles
            * Polyphase systems

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

    No matter if the 'Tesla fanatics' know much about physics or not, Tesla still was and remains a very rare genius.

    Thank you for trolling!

  12. Re:What a waste of energy by aztektum · · Score: 2, Informative

    His name was not Julius.

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    No sig for you!!
  13. Re:What a waste of energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are conceptually misunderstanding the significance of this research. They are using resonant induction. This is a form of induction which has directivity determined by the load's location. Your design had excellent efficiency because the load was extremely close. Using resonant induction, you can have extremely high efficiencies with a significant distance between the source and the load. It does not radiate in unwanted directions--it would probably not erase a floppy because it would not couple to the floppy, it would only couple to the load.

  14. Re:What a waste of energy by Myrddin+Wyllt · · Score: 2, Informative

    He makes perfect sense. Transmission losses are lower for DC at equivalent Voltage/Current because of inductive losses with AC. Historically this has been offset by the greater transformer losses incurred by DC, but modern equipment means that, for long-distance power lines, HVDC is already more efficient than traditional AC distribution.

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