Posted on 08/22/2008 5:27:09 AM PDT by ryan71
Intel on Thursday showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionize modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.
Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer.
Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.
"The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently," Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.
"It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Carolyn
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Tesla.
Nature has that now its called lightning.
Hmm.
Sending electric power through the air. Through walls.
Through table legs. Through ... humans.
What could *possibly* go wrong?
I want to believe that Intel is capable of this because that means more business for me but I will be cautiously optimistic.
People have been stealing power from high voltage lines like this for years.
“It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field.”
This may be true, but then again, it may not be. I personally would rather have outlets and wires at this point than to induce a bunch of magnetic fields in my house. I would like to see what happens to gene expression profiles in cells exposed to these same magnetic fields. If there is a change then the fields do have biological effects, irrespective of what may be claimed. There are a number of published studies that have looked at this in different contexts. Some show changes in gene expression. Some don’t. The jury is still out, in my opinion.
Yep. Tesla: Been there done that.
Are you kidding? Tort lawyers, sharpening up their coup knives, are workin' on an answer even as we freep.
I’m thinking people with pacemakers won’t like this new technology. Some medical devices are so sensitive, you can’t even pass through a metal detector with one.
While our skin offers considerable resistance, our bodily fluids and nervous system can conduct electricity, and I would think that a strong magnetic field would induce currents in our body at some point. The currents would be lower than in the intended electronics because of the greater resistance, but at some point what is harmless in smaller quantities becomes harmful.
This makes me awfully nervous about unexpected side effects.
Not true at all. When I was in an electrical engineering program many moons ago, my wise old professor told us that nationally, electrical engineers have the highest incidences of leukemia in the nation, outside of folks living next to toxic waste sites.
Prediction: This technology will be stillborn. The same pansies that worry about the effect of cell phone “radiation” and power lines will publish a bunch of pseudo-science showing a vague correlation between magnetic fields and some medical condition.
Bull.
I couldn’t find where it said how much power was generated to produce the output. I’m presuming a lossy tranmission system at this point.
Yeah, but somehow I don’t think we’d come out unscathed when walking through a lightning bolt.
I would think that anything with a cathode tube, electromagnetic speakers, cell phones and steak knives in drawers might be adversely affected.
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