[FLOutdoorsman]

Nothing like a good moot.

Seriously, I dunno the health implications of having such a system. Thats alot of energy flying around.

[Buck W.]

So Tesla was right!

[prisoner6]

BUMPERS FOR AFTERS

[djf]

Considering probably 90% of the energy sent out by the system will just float up into the ozone, I wonder if they will earn the "Energy Star" label?

[Gorzaloon]

Nothing like a good moot.

Seriously, I dunno the health implications of having such a system. Thats alot of energy flying around.

There is also the uncomfortable reality that even with today's high copper prices, wires are dirt cheap and nearly 100% efficient.

[Brilliant]

My suspicion is that this will never be workable with a consumer product like a laptop. Maybe they can use it to power things like lunar rovers, etc., but if you can use the sun anyway, I'm not sure what the advantage is.

[Rummyfan]

The problems are efficiency of the transfer, i.e. how much power is simply lost in the transmission, and the safety concerns with beaming that amnount of power around. You don't want people to feel like they're in a microwave oven.

[Larry Lucido]

They say the challenge is finding a 'magic' frequency that does not also affect living organisms and thus pose possible health risks.

Hey, piece of cake.

[laotzu]

the transfer of light energy from the Sun..involve relatively low levels of energy

Well....OK then.

[Petronski]

No fair. The original inventor of the cordless extension cord was Stephen Wright.

[KillTime]

They already have them:


http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/wec.shtml

[dalight]

He's using the non-electromagnetic part of the electromagnetic spectrum. :)

Non-radiative my tail. But, this could be due to bad reporting. This may be using a capacitance field approach that transfers data and thus energy via the surface capacitance of objects. A network technology was based on this.. Auranet, which played on the name of the shimmer surrounding people viewed in the morning light.

However, I still don't know what the effects of trying to transfer alot of energy via this would be.

I know it can be done. Did something like this for High School Science project.

[WildBill2275]

I've been reading science fiction for years and a lot of those stories had wireless power transmission. And in a fictional world you can ignore inconvenient realities, like for example the Inverse Square Law. But I guess if you can get around that, the "magical" frequency would be a good thing to have.

[Thrownatbirth]

My First Law of Electromagnetics: If it's new, it will ALWAYS adversely affect the ham radio bands.

[LexBaird]

Instead of using traditional radiation, he wants to use the part of the electromagnetic field that is 'non-radiative'.

Will some physist out there explain untraditional, non-radiative radiation to me? Also how energy can be transmitted without being "radiated"?

[Mike Darancette]

In other news; Tumors of the brain have shown a sharp increase in recent years. Medical experts have no explanation.

[arthurus]

Broadcast power seems inherently terribly inefficient. Only a tiny portion of the power broadcast could be used. Most would radiate into space that contains no receiver.

[thackney]

Zot powered!

[SunkenCiv]

Wardenclyffe:

Google

[SunkenCiv]

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UNPLUGGED. Alternating current fed into a wire loop (blue) generates a field that induces currents in the coil (red, at left), creating a magnetic field that reaches a second coil (red) several meters away (at right), creating a local field that induces a current in the second loop (blue), lighting a bulb. -- Science

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[Fitzcarraldo]

it’s a waste! inverse square law and all that!