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Intel Demos Wireless "Resonant" Recharging

Posted by timothy on from the really-strikes-a-chord dept.

Al writes "Last Thursday researchers from Intel demonstrated a way to recharge electronics from about meter away using a 'resonant' magnetic field. At an event held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the researchers showed off a pair of iPod speakers connected to a 30-centimeter-wide copper coil that received power from a similar, but larger, copper coil about a meter away. The recharging technique relies on a phenomenon called resonant coupling, in which objects can exchange energy when tuned to resonate at the same frequency. A similar approach was developed by researchers at MIT in 2007, and spun off into a company called WiTricity. This company has already developed a few products that use resonant coupling to recharge, including a car battery."

9 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Pacemakers? by sexconker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pacemakers lol?

    Seriously, this is nothing more than a simple application of a simple science experiment.

    Wireless fields / broadcasts are a joke, and until we change the laws of physics, always will be. (Directed transmissions are not a joke.)

    1. Re:Pacemakers? by rsmits · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Pacemakers lol?

      Seriously, this is nothing more than a simple application of a simple science experiment.

      Wireless fields / broadcasts are a joke, and until we change the laws of physics, always will be. (Directed transmissions are not a joke.)

      I was doing this as a kid in the sixties with a one transistor radio powered by rf from the local broadcast station. The radio had two tuned circuits - one for receiving power, one for tuning to the station. It's exactly the same principle used here. So now we get thousands of new sources of radio frequency interference from these chargers! Thanks a lot.

    2. Re:Pacemakers? by Dragonslicer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wireless power loses energy, so the only places it makes sense are were wires can't go or batteries can't easily be replaced.

      It's also useful for small devices that would be safer without exposed contacts. Electric toothbrushes are the first thing that come to mind, though I'm sure there are plenty of better examples.

  2. Dumb question... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't resonant vibration the way tons of energy transfers occur, including plain old radio communication?

    What makes this so novel?

    1. Re:Dumb question... by neomunk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      80% power efficiency.
       

  3. power consumption by mehrotra.akash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    what is the power consumption of the transmitting coil when there is no load coil, also, does the power consumption increase or decrease based on the number of receiving coils??

    and, what happens if you place a HDD, or your phone contains a HDD and is charged using this method, wont the magnetic field damage the magnetic media??

    similarly, magnetic fields can mess up CRT's, try taking a magnet to a CRT screen..

  4. Already have wireless power.... by Itninja · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ....it's called 'using batteries'. With a 3 meter range and relatively huge copper coils involved, how is this better that using batteries? Most devices use a transformer to customize the input for the device. With wireless power, would each device need some kind of special wireless receiver/transformer? And this would be better how?

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
    1. Re:Already have wireless power.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The receiving end of this arrangement is a 12 inch copper coil. Unless your phone and iPod are fucking enormous, you'll still have to plug them into something. And you'll still have a tangle of wires bearing incompatible connectors.

      In other words, this "invention" is no more useful than a wire, but loses 20% of your power and takes up a shitload of space in your room. Count me out.

  5. Wasted Energy by wjousts · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So in this era of concern about energy supplies, we have a new way to charge our phones that is less efficient and will waste a ton of energy. But at least we won't trip over any cables.