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Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-Watt light bulb glow by sending it enery wirelessly from a device 7 feet away, potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.
The break-through, disclosed on thursday in Science Express, the online publication of the journal science is being called "WiTricity" by the scientist. The concept of sending power wirelessly isin't new, but its wide scale use has been dismissed as inefficient because electrmagnetic energy generated by the charging device would radiate in all directions.
One advance we announced last fall, when MIT physics proffessor, Marin Soljacis, said he had figured out how to use specially turned waves. The key is to get the recharging device and the gadget that needs power to resonate at the same frequency allowing them to more efficiently exchange power.
It is similar to how an opera star can break a wine glass that happens to resonate at the same frequency as her voice.
It was quite exciting, Soljacic said "The process is very reproducible." He added "We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want."
The development raises the prospect that we might eliminate some of the clutter of cables in our evermore electronic world and if devices can get there power through the air they might not need batteries and their attendant toxic chemicals. However the technology has a long way to go before it becomes practical.
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