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.

Comments

What a waste of energy

[Timo_UK]

25% of wasted power and goal achieved? Plus a nice pulsating magnetic field in the house? No thank you.

Re:What a waste of energy

[MightyYar]

Plus a nice pulsating magnetic field in the house?

They'll sell more if they say it's "throbbing".

Re:What a waste of energy

[poetmatt]

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).

A4tech made a series of wireless battery free mice that use the same technology (I've been using those for about 4 years)....they were cheap pricewise too. A4tech appears to have lost their sql server/domain (at a4tech.com), so I'm linking one from a shopping site:
http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp=39484911

These types of things are actually really nice, it makes the mouse extremely lightweight as well.

However, I seem to recall people saying the wireless transmission aspects will enable to create a "charging pad" whereupon you can place any device and simply charge it without having to connect it, and thus would be the basic use - put an ipod, a phone, whatever on said pad and charge ahoy.

Re:What a waste of energy

[beacher]

I've used these wireless extension cords and they don't have the throbbing noise. Just don't walk between them.....

Re:What a waste of energy

[sm62704]

You already have pulsating magnetic fields in your house. In the US, AC current is 60 hz, so you have a constant 60 hz magnetic field. That hum you hear is the oscillating magnetic field moving steel back and forth.

Your TV has a tremendous magnetic field, as do subwoofers.

The magnetic field won't hurt you. My dad was an electrical lineman for forty years, often working on the 30,000 volt towers. He couldn't wear a mechanical wristwatch because it would become magnetized. He just turned 77 and he's healthier than a lot of guys my age.

If magnetic fields caused cancer, linemen would die of lukemia right and left.

Re:What a waste of energy

[NoPantsJim]

Try and add it to your cart and it'll show the proper power output.

Re:What a waste of energy

[Doc Ruby]

We've already got enough wasteful energy tech "byproducts" heating the air without converting 25% of our mobile power into hot air in our homes and offices. That needs to be airconditioned away, which itself operates at something like 20% energy efficiency, so that extra 25% will cost an additional 125% in cooling power. The 75% used for charging will consume an extra 150%, so the whole affair will consume 3x the power it delivers to devices, for 33% efficiency, not 75%.

And if the chargers are on all the time, they're going to be wasting that extra energy all the time, the way wired adapter chargers do now. All those "always on" chargers use a significant percentage of the world's electric for no benefit whatsoever.

We should be working on tech that reduces these electric wastes, not multiplies them. We don't have enough energy to waste now, let alone to waste many times more.

Re:What a waste of energy

[ShieldW0lf]

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.

Re:What a waste of energy

[Lumpy]

Exactly. My design back in 1992 had zero waste when an item was not near the mat. (I invented the "charge mat" for my final thesis for my EE degree.)

I simply looked for a change in inductance to detect if a device is local for charging, if so I switched from detect to charge and pulsed back to detect every minute. Also I did not have a 25% loss, but I was only supplying 10watts. (I was charging devices not powering them.) From what I remember losses went up ad the power range went up. Plus I used simple inductance not som fancy phased power system.

Side effect, keys on the mat will get warm, floppies and zip disks erased.

Re:What a waste of energy

[SQL Error]

Tesla wanted to do this on a large scale over a hundred years ago, and was prevented by the laws of physics.

Re:What a waste of energy

[aliquis]

Or maybe it was just considered a bad idea, and I think it's now as well.

Re:What a waste of energy

[AJWM]

Linemen also spend more time in the sun, are more likely to be exposed to PCB residues from transformers, and are exposed to chemicals like arsenic and creosote used as preservatives in wooden poles.

Re:What a waste of energy

[orasio]

In 1920 the patent expired.
Maybe it wasn't done before, because it couldn't be done practically.

About being "extremely late", that is funny. Going to the moon in 1969 instead of 1900 was also extremely late, Julius Verne had already thought of that.

Re:What a waste of energy

[ShieldW0lf]

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.

Re:What a waste of energy

[mrops]

Tech Support: This is tech support, how may I help you.

Customer: I powered my Wireless USB Harddrive with this nifty Wireless power thing from Intel, My Harddrive is not showing any data, in fact my computer says the drive is not even formatted.

Re:What a waste of energy

[encoderer]

IIRC (And I may not), he set up a big demo for the press. They all trekked up to his compound. He flipped the switch and it APPEARED to work. And a bird apparently flew into the path of the transmission and the bird just fell like a brick, as if it died instantly.

Many people speculated that it was a hoax or, if not, it was at least very dangerous.

The story goes further that when he died, the Gov't confiscated his papers. US Scientists looked everything over and concluded it to be impossible.

Then, during the cold war, US Spy imagery showed a huge complex being built in a remote location in the USSR. The military had trouble figuring out what it was. Eventually a Gov't scientist familiar w/ the Tesla work had the 'aha moment' and he pulled-out the tesla papers and sure enough, it seemed as though the Soviets were building an energy weapon of some sort.

Again, IIRC, they never were able to make it work, which is why it's not famous and in school books. But it is interesting that they TRIED and I'd love to read about that project.

(Heard all this about a year ago on a radio program by either NPR or PRI)

Re:What a waste of energy

[encoderer]

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

Re:What a waste of energy

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:What a waste of energy

[zuzulo]

Actually, these days physicists commonly think that Tesla was actually trying to use the (relatively static) magnetic field of the earth as a carrier for pulsed power. This turns out to be not quite as far fetched as it seemed at the time, and may actually be feasible.

Much like the difference between AC and DC current in copper (AC is significantly more effective because it essentially vibrates electrons back and forth rather then sending them all the way along the conductive medium from source to target), theoretically one could 'ring' the magnetic field of the earth with a large enough installation and appropriate frequency controls, and local power stations could use that 'ring' or oscillation to do work.

Much like how the AC power grid works today, except you are using the earths magnetic field to transfer energy between remote locations rather than our power grid, which is essentially a huge network of copper wires.

So it is not at all clear that what stopped Tesla was actually the laws of physics, it could have been any number of things and the basic idea may actually be sound.

These days if anyone is playing around with trying to manipulate the earths magnetic field, even for altruistic goals, i hope they think about the potential seen and unforeseen side effects. Which despite his genius Tesla clearly did not generally do. No one really knows as yet (to my knowledge, anyway) what the long term effects are of exposure to large and/or rapidly fluctuating magnetic fields. Heck, we still dont know what the real biological effects are of various electrical fields.

Upshot: not at all clear that Tesla's scheme to implement wireless power on an extremely large scale was stopped by the laws of physics - the possibility of something similar to his designs being able to accomplish some part of his goals still appears to be a real potential.

alternative

[spectrokid]

how about all manufacturors agree on a single plug for their power supplies. Then the companies who make power sockets for offices can make one built into a wall socket. Put that into every meeting room. Suddenly you just need a 1 meter long, very thin cable instead of a lugging a whole kilo of copper around....

Re:alternative

[RulerOf]

how about all manufacturors agree on a single plug for their power supplies

This doesn't even happen within a single manufacturer. Every time LG makes a new phone, for example, the charging port changes.

And guess what? They do this to make more money. When you lose (or break) your (very shittily designed) charger, you can't just go to Radioshack and buy a $7 universal one. You have to go back to the manufacturer and pay $30 to get a new one.

Even chargers based on a worldwide standard are locked out on a manufacturer basis as well. Try plugging a Blackberry USB charger into a Motorola USB charged Verizon phone. It'll read "Unauthorized Charger." Not "Incompatible," but "Unauthorized." That means that the manufacturer (and probably Verizon, because they just know you'll show up at a store to buy their overpriced replacement shit) has decided that you'll only charge your phone with equipment that they deem fit to perform the task, despite the device's adherence to a worldwide open standard.

In short, you've got a fantastic idea, but greed-driven economics dictates otherwise.

I knew it

[Unclenefeesa]

There had to be some truth in emails I received about cooking an egg between 2 cell phone !!

This is new?

[amdpox]

Unless I've misunderstood the linked article, this is just the same technique that has been used in transformers for decades - a fluctuating magnetic field created by an AC current through a solenoid inducing power in another solenoid. Sure, 75% efficiency is pretty good for a few metres, but those coils are bloody huge. Anyone care to enlighten me as to whether or not this is actually new?

Ok, Slashdot team goal.

[Chairboy]

Alright everyone, today's team building exercise will be to complete this discussion without mentioning Nicolai Tesla! Everyone, let's get together on this and try to avoid mentioning him in this thread and keep it entirely Tesla free! ...oh goddamnit.

and the day after the tech goes live

[petes_PoV]

Pressure groups start campaigning about the health effects of bodily exposure to magnetic fields.

unlike the scares surrounding the micro-power electric fields from mobile phones and the virtually non-existent fields from CRTs, the amount of power being emitted by these (enough to power a laptop or lightbulb) might actually be something to get concerned about.

Re:We're still playing catchup with Tesla!

[Tenrosei]

Nah Tesla made something better he realized wireless power was stupid but wireless power that is a weapon is smart. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17623644.800-tesla-and-tunguska.html

Tesla did this a long time ago.

[kobotronic]

Nikola Tesla demonstrated wirelessly powered fluorescent lights more than 100 years ago.

Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see practical applications and commercial implementations for this old idea, and hopefully help us reduce cable clutter a bit. I just hope that accidentally resonant circuitry in the vicinity of transmitters won't suddenly fry itself and cause random fires.

Re:Great Idea - Not there yet.

[amdpox]

Magnetic field != radiation. Even a fluctuating magnetic field isn't going to effect humans - I think the issue is more the EM interference a strong fluctuating field can bring about.

Tesla would be spinning in his grave...

[jolyonr]

assuming his body had a ferrite core and was wrapped in copper wire, or something...

Re:I've always wondered... here's why

[Anonymous Coward]

The house wiring doesn't create much field, electric or magnetic. You would have to be right next to the wire to use it.

Magnetic - The current going out the hot wire is exactly matched by that returning on the neutral. The fields due to the two currents cancel.

Electric - The hot wire has 120 volts on it and that would create an electric field but the neutral and ground wires are right next to it. That means the field, while not completely shielded, does not go very far.

OTOH: some appliances create pretty hefty fields. CRT TVs and monitors, motors and subwoofers come to mind. As long as you're willing to sit your calculator on an old CRT TV, you should be able to power it easily. ;-)