[CDHart]

"elective fields?"

Carolyn

[goldstategop]

Cool! I've always wanted table lamps without ugly electric cords running under a rug to the nearest outlet!

"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

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Tesla.

[bikerman]

Nature has that now its called lightning.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Hmm.

Sending electric power through the air. Through walls.

Through table legs. Through ... humans.

What could *possibly* go wrong?

[Tolkien]

I design "things" for Intel and let me just say that I have to see it to believe it.

I want to believe that Intel is capable of this because that means more business for me but I will be cautiously optimistic.

[DaveArk]

People have been stealing power from high voltage lines like this for years.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

“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.

[untrained skeptic]

It's been a while since I took field theory, but I would think that any magnetic field strong enough to induce a current large enough to run laptops would likely have some undesirable effects on people.

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.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields

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.

[Scutter]

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.

[libh8er]

It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields

Bull.

[ArGee]

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.

[Center Line Theory]

I'm not sure that computer hard drives will like a load of magnetic fields whizzing through the air. I seem to recall magnetic fields and hard drives don't play well together. Might need more shielding than what current hard drives are built with to avoid mass data loss. But then again, maybe I'm wrong and todays hard drives are amazing and indestructible pieces of techno brilliance.

[IncPen]

I would think that anything with a cathode tube, electromagnetic speakers, cell phones and steak knives in drawers might be adversely affected.

[RinaseaofDs]

Tesla, inside of his grave: “OK, I should have kept better notes, but jeez - it took you 100 years to catch up to one of my parlor tricks? You guys watch too much TV . . . I never should have come up with the fundamental principals for that either (radio too!).”

[mylife]

If you are only using the inductive portion of the transmission, how efficient could it be?

Sounds like a large energy loss is involved to me.

[Yo-Yo]

I wonder if a person with an implanted wire mesh stint would have some induced voltages?

[cyberaxe]

.....this would be just great.....

.....(for all us electricians and cable infrastructure folks).....

.....it would be a bummer though.....

.....to find out that it's not very friendly to.....

.....every thing from cell phone memory to.....

.....your credit card mag stripe.....

.....rut row!.....

[jrd]

I think the problem with Tesla was Westinghouse could figure out how to charge for it