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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.

11 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What a waste of energy by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Plus a nice pulsating magnetic field in the house?

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

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  2. alternative by spectrokid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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....

    --

    10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

  3. I knew it by Unclenefeesa · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    In this field no matter how much you know, You still don't know anything.
  4. Re:What a waste of energy by poetmatt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:What a waste of energy by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  6. Tesla would be spinning in his grave... by jolyonr · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --


    Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
  7. Re:I've always wondered... here's why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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. ;-)

  8. Re:What a waste of energy by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  9. Re:What a waste of energy by SQL+Error · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  10. Re:What a waste of energy by AJWM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    -- Alastair
  11. 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