With wireless Internet and a slew of wireless devices, the next logical step in wireless technology is electricity transmission. Examples of the technology have shown up over the last few years in various places — at least half of the readers of this blog unknowingly employ wireless power transmission twice a day in their electric toothbrushes — but systematically faded into irrelevance due to feasibility issues (ever heard of electrocution? ouch!).
The folks at Intel have built on the previous attempts using magnetic induction technology and last Thursday demonstrated the latest in wireless electric systems at an Intel developers forum in San Francisco. Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb (see photo):
Intel is excited to one day initiate wireless power for use with laptops as well as other devices that fall in the < 60 watt range. Imagine, no more fighting for the single outlet at coffee shops – sounds good! In terms of efficiency, Intel’s improvement to the wireless resonant energy link technology pioneered at MIT has taken a significant leap. Whereas MIT’s researchers achieved 50% efficiency of power transmitted several meters via magnetic fields, Intel’s latest test reached 75% efficiency. For a more in-depth look at Intel’s wireless efforts, click here.
Filed under: News, Space 2.0 | Tagged: Intel, magnetic induction, MIT, wireless, wireless electricity, wireless power, wireless power transmission
This is nice that more companies are getting involved in the wireless electricity revolution.
I know that a company called PowerBeam is also involved in the wireless era and they safely transmit energy through optical energy, instead of the copper wires and the electro-magnetic field.
By using optical energy they can send energy over long-range distances. Their device also has a safety system so that it shuts down if anything is close to the beam.
I’m not exactly sure how efficient their system is but if you’re interested in more info check out http://www.powerbeaminc.com