MIT Researchers Make Wireless Power Breakthrough

WBZTV.COM ^ | 07 JUNE 2007 | AP

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

(AP) CAMBRIDGE -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly -- from a device 7 feet away -- potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get their juice without having to be plugged in.

The breakthrough, disclosed Thursday in Science Express, the online publication of the journal Science, is being called "WiTricity" by the scientists.

The concept of sending power wirelessly isn't new, but it has been dismissed as inefficient because the electromagnetic energy generated by the charging device radiates in all directions.

One advance was announced last fall, when MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic said he had figured out how to use specially tuned waves that don't radiate as much. The key is to get the recharging device and the gadget that needs power on the same frequency, similar to how a radio picks up only one station at a time.

Soljacic's team also stresses that this "magnetic coupling" has a low range and is safe on humans and other living things.

The next step was to demonstrate the principle in experiments, which is what was described in the new paper in Science. The MIT team said it found success with the 60-watt light bulb that had "no physical connection" with the power-generating appliance.

The research was funded by the Army Research Office, National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

[Androcles]

Way cool. Goodd post.

[Kevmo]

Very interesting.

From Townhall.com

The MIT system is about 40 to 45 percent efficient _ meaning that most of the energy from the charging device doesn’t make it to the light bulb. Soljacic believes his system needs to get twice as efficient to be on par with charging the chemical batteries in portable gadgets.

Also, the copper coils that transmit the power are about 2 feet wide for now _ too big to be feasible for, say, laptops. And the 7-foot range of this wireless handoff could be increased _ presumably so that one charging device could automatically power all the gadgets in a room.

Soljacic believes all those improvements are within reach. The next step is to fire up more than just light bulbs, perhaps a Roomba robotic vacuum or a laptop.

Soljacic’s team stresses that the “magnetic coupling” process involved in WiTricity is safe on humans and other living things. And in the initial experiments on the light bulb, no harm came to the cell phones, electronic equipment and credit cards in the room _ though more research on that is needed.

___

On the Net:

Soljacic’s Web page: http://tinyurl.com/ytz2t3

[Kevmo]

Future Tech Ping.
This could be significant in several areas. Isolated power supplies are big business.

[tje]

Wasn’t Tesla doing this a few years back?

[T. P. Pole]

Yes, but the story goes that it powered everything within miles. And the transformer was noisy. You'd open your fridge and light would go on, but so would the rattle-rattle or the transformer down the street.

Of course, he was doing this what, 80 years ago?

[Silly]

Amazing. For years I’ve wondered if anyone would ever try this. Now they’ve done it.

[Rodney King]

I don’t get it... this was invented over 100 years ago, and was done.

[Between the Lines]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly -- from a device 7 feet away

In 1899 in Colorado Springs Tesla transmitted 100 million volts of high-frequency electric power wirelessly over a distance of 26 miles with which he lit up a bank of 200 light bulbs and ran one electric motor.

Technology marches on...