Think Geek has been known to come up with some great April Fools products to sell on their site. Back in 2006 on April Fools Day they came up with “Wireless Extension Cords” (wireless power) to sell and under the “Availability” section of the page, they put “no suing.” It was clearly a joke to some, but to others like Computer Power User Magazine, they thought it was real. The thought of wireless power is interesting, that’s for sure, and while it was a joke back then, we may be seeing something like it in the future.
Just yesterday, Intel was able to give a presentation showing new technology that they have developed that will allow electricity to be sent wirelessly. To show-off their technology, they sent power, wirelessly, to a 60 watt bulb that they had on the stage. They said that a 60 watt bulb takes more power than a typical laptop computer so essentially, people could potentially be able to power their laptops wirelessly in the future.
One of the first questions we had was in regards to safety. As it turns out, there really aren’t too many safety concerns because Intel uses the magnetic field to transmit energy and not the electric field.
Analyst Rob Enderle talked about Intel’s power system saying, “Initially it eliminates chargers and eventually it eliminates batteries all together. That is potentially a world changing event. This is the closest we’ve had to something being commercially available in this class.”
If Intel makes this tangible, it would really create a whole new world. Its applications would disappear into the world of science-fiction.
This is so fantastic, it’s absolutely surrealistic, or maybe magic is a better term. I’m out of words, forgive me.
Actually the concepts and proposals for wireless power are much older than 2006, and it has never been much of a joke. There have been many and overwhelming issues along the way. Not the least of which is the incredible inefficiency (read NOT green) of any readily available technology. And, of course if people can convince themselves that that the milliwatts put out by cellphones, and the hundreds of watts by the towers are deadly or injuring, imagine what they will say about megawatts? Wireless power distribution systems for homes go back to the fifties at least. It’s always the same problem, yes, you can do it, but the losses are huge, and the dangers are at least real in the minds of many if not in fact. I doubt you’ll be able to convince many that standing amid thousands or millions of watts of transmitted power is good for you.
Just as radio has many and increasing uses, limited applications of transmitted power will too, but little possibility exits of replacing the power grid.
ahh true wireless!
Exactly Wandering, it’s NOT green. Efficiency is about 75% now, which means you lose 25% of the energy you put into it. Doesn’t seem like a good solution in these times with increasing energy prices and problems to produce enough energy.
Perhaps it’s nice to use once we find a way to create energy (nearly) for free (with cold fusion for instance).
I don’t trust corporation’s standard for safety
It will be interesting to see how they handle the efficiency factor that you guys are talking about. The other thing I was thinking about was what happens when something is not in use. For example, you turn off a light to conserve energy, but in the case of wireless power it would still be floating around in the air despite the receiver not using it. So it’s even more inefficient.