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Wearable technology seems to be a hot topic these days. Most of the major technology players have some form of wearable device in the works. Samsung is calling its product line, Galaxy Gear, which they say will encourage “a smarter life.” The hope is that Internet technology will move from being something that is some-what independent of us to something that is literally woven into our daily existence. From your shoes to your shirt, stove to your toilet, the future may be found in connecting every part of our lives. This is sometimes referred to as the “Internet of Things.”...

[TechView: The Industry] Reviving Tesla's Wireless Power Initiatives Kristina Fiore ED Online ID #16478 September 13, 2007 Copyright © 2006 Penton Media, Inc., All rights reserved. While scientists at the turn of the 20th century were experimenting with the wireless transmission of information, like radio, Croatian-born inventor Nikola Tesla had a grander vision (Fig. 1). He imagined the wireless transmission of power—to supply "light, heat, or motive power anywhere—on sea, or land, or high in the air," he told The New York Times in 1904. With the help of the October 2006 film The Prestige, where a fictionalized version of...

Small, battery-powered gadgets make powerful computing portable. Unfortunately, there's still a continual need to recharge the batteries of phones, laptops, cameras, and MP3 players by hooking them up to a tangle of wires. Now researchers at MIT have proposed a way to cut the cords by wirelessly supplying power to devices. "We are very good at transmitting information wirelessly," says Marin Soljačić, professor of physics at MIT. But, he says, historically, it's been much more difficult to transmit energy to power devices in the same way. Soljačić, who was a 2006 TR35 winner (see "2006 Young Innovator"), and MIT colleagues...