JUN 08

WiTricity works on the principle of magnetic coupled resonance. The MIT team built matching copper coils to precise specifications, so that when power was applied to one coil, it produces a magnetic frequency - in the MHz range, since you wanted to know - which causes the other coil to vibrate up to 7ft (over 2 meters) away. Meanwhile, other elctromagnetic fields, such as those surrounding computers, cell phones, and human beings, remain largely unaffected.

The scientists were able to light up a 60-watt bulb that had "no physical connection" with the power-generating appliance. "It was quite exciting," Soljacic said. The process is "very reproducible," he added. "We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want."

Aside from the implications in clutter management (who wouldn't want to get rid of that tangle of wires behind the desk? Ugh!) there's a green component, too - imagine a world without the need for batteries and their weight, inefficiency, short life span and toxic chemicals. Current battery technologies are around 80-90% efficient at best, losing energy through heat and self-discharge; WiTricity is currently capable of about half that, but for a proof of concept that's pretty darn good. The group envisions a product which could supplant batteries in cell phones, Roombas, laptops, and other household items which require frequent charging.

via Linux Insider and MIT News Office

Comments (15)

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Really sustainable?
written by Gavin D. J. Harper, June 08, 2007

I suspect that rather than being a 'battery replacement' technology, this will be a way of lazy battery charging without having to plug your device in...

There will presumably be a greater loss using this method to transmit power than by using wires.

This could be the new 'standby mode' - we could end up consuming tons more kWh by being too lazy to 'plug in' to recharge. We could be creating efficiency problems rather than solving them.

How much power does this device consume in 'standby' mode whilst waiting for a device to be connected?

By all means a leap forward in technology - but worth re-looking at with a critical eye from a sustainability viewpoint.

Discuss:

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Electric Cars
written by Randy Fithian, June 09, 2007

This would be a great technology for electric cars. No on board batteries.

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Oh great.....
written by Andrew Pritchard, June 09, 2007

.... yet another way we can waste the world's resources and all because people are too lazy to plug their laptop in! At the moment it's only 40% efficient - meaning that 60% of the power is completely wasted. This kind of technology should not be employed until it is as efficient as the thing it's replacing.

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...
written by Rhapsodyinglue, June 09, 2007

In general due to the efficiency problem, which I doubt will be able to achieve parity with batteries, I don't think this will ever be a mainstream technology. However, there undoubtedly are some uses... such as toy model airships, UAVs of the non-toy military variety, a charger for Fido's GPS tracking collar or a charger for your embedded insulin pump.

Seems like this isn't different from what is already used with RFID tags, other than scaling it up. I wonder what the patentable idea is.

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This Isn't Something New
written by Brian, June 10, 2007

You might want to read up on Nikola Tesla. He's the one that gave us alternating current among his many other energy related patents. He's the one that wanted to provide free power to everyone. J.P. Morgan, and J. Edgar Hoover are the reasons we don't have free energy today. The technology discussed here was first demonstrated in the very early 1900's. The least MIT could do is site the genius behind this idea. It most certainly wasn't them.

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What about the electromagnetic energy?
written by monotonehell, June 11, 2007

Cos you know, we need MORE EM radiation 'flying around'. We already are bathed in every conceivable point of the EM spectra. The jury is still out on the whole cancer / nature issue.

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Nothing is new
written by Sam, June 11, 2007

Of course this isn't a new physical phenomenon. Hardly anything is these days. The physics behind most new technology was discovered decades ago, no matter what field you're talking about. The breakthrough is actually making the phenomenon applicable to everyday living. Sure Tesla theorized about the ability to do this way back when but he ran out of funding before he could make it a reality. Even today, the consumer version of this technology is still a ways off, but these folks have made a fairly big step forward.

So before you go discounting every new product as "This is so old news", realize that everything is old news and the new news is that you might actaully get to use this product some day soon.

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sir.
written by fella, June 12, 2007

Tesla got a light going through a more inventive means. He was trying to create an electric field on the entire surface of the earth and then you could light your light from anywhere on earth. This also caused him to envision instantaneous communication across the planet. His big experiment that he never finished was to do just that. It was a huge coil that fed down a mine shaft with pipes that went in several miles in several directions with the idea to drive the current on the surface of the earth. He has also done some really wild experiments never followed up on because we don't fully know the impact. He was working on machines that could control the weather using huge electromagnetic fields (working for the military).....

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Hold Your Horses!
written by Dejan, June 12, 2007

Hey, guys!

Why do You think, that Tesla didn't pursue it to the stage where it would be operational in practice? :-

It's simple! ;)

Whom would you sent the bill for electricity if the electricity was just like so "in the air"? :-

That is the real problem why this technology didn't evolve before. ;)

This will be a real breakthrough but only for let's say charging your cell-phone without the cable. But that's it. In today's profit-oriented society you will not see any wireless power transmission in the real world. :'(

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Remote power
written by Matt James, June 17, 2007

This could have immense possibility as a way to send electricity from remote places like far underground (though wires would be feasible) or say, space (where wires would be much less feasible, though not impossible.

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fyi...
written by Nick, July 04, 2007

I talked about wireless electricity 10 years ago,
People said i was crazy

Tesla also upped the anti on that one, do some hard research and find out about why he was blacklisted and died a sad broke man.

i'm talking about discoveries that would have changed the world!

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Witricity Nikola Tesla's Dream Came True
written by Witricity, July 12, 2007

Witricity News, Experimental Videos And Information:

http://www.witricitynet.com

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Witricity Nikola Tesla's Dream Came True
written by Witricity, July 12, 2007

Witricity News, Experimental Videos And Information: http://www.witricitynet.com :)

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how it will works in common houses?
written by confused, January 17, 2008

from what i read, in what my non-specialist brain can take is that i can figure it simply as having a generator that i still need to plug to physical power line and then it will "broadcast" magnetic resonance of which my other stuff will "receive" the signal and then powered up.

is this means that the only thing i need to actually "pay" for the electricity bill is the power it needs to fire up the generator and the resonance it creates will power up anything within its range as long as the coil on whatever devices receiving the signal can vibrate?

because if thats the case, this is probably the greenest thing i've ever seen, i can buy a generator and turn on 100 TVs with it and all houses only needs to draw power to fire the generator not every single items in it

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INFORMATION
written by deepinder singh, June 15, 2008

i deepinder student of dav institute of technology and eng dng electronics and communication eng........i hve dream to know everything about wireless elec..i hve read all the details......since u want to generate wireles elec at homes by placing generators........but this generators may a lot of magnetic field losses ........how ll u overcome this problem....if u r taking cu coils can we take al coils?since ac supply is being cut off for a moment but current ll continue to be produced at receiving end(since it ll be residual current)..
i ll be very thankful to u...if u answer to my quires.......

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