Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Wireless energy lights bulb from seven feet away

B

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
Physicists vow to cut the cord between your laptop battery and the wall socket—with just a simple loop of wire...
Click to expand...

And perhaps one day they will...



Researchers have successfully lit a 60-watt light bulb by transferring energy through the air from one specially designed copper coil to the bulb, which was attached to a second coil seven feet away
Click to expand...


_43014749_lights_wall_203.jpg




http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=07511C52-E7F2-99DF-3FA6ED2D7DC9AA20&chanId=sa025

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6725955.stm


That's pretty cool and one day we might be able to do away with this:

_42299702_cables_spl_203.jpg
 
It's all a plot by the American Oncologists Society! :p

I read about this sometime last year, and as cool and promising as it is, I think by the time it's commercially viable and easy to find in the home, I'll likely be worm food.

But at least my iPhone won't buzz every time I turn on a lamp!
 
EricNau said:
Didn't Tesla already do this?
Click to expand...


I was going to post something about Tesla but thought much of what he did, although related, could almost warrant a thread of its own... the BBC article does point out that:

Nineteenth-century physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla experimented with long-range wireless energy transfer, but his most ambitious attempt - the 29m high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower, in New York - failed when he ran out of money.

Others have worked on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer such as lasers.

However, unlike the MIT work, these require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.
Click to expand...

Regardless, it's still pretty neat. :)
 
Blue Velvet said:
Regardless, it's still pretty neat. :)
Click to expand...
"Pretty neat?!" Sheesh. If just about everything I've ever needed to plug in could use this technology, I'd lessen the chances of my (or my cats) from slaughtering any electronics... forEVAR! :p Plus, since I'm such a slob, it'd help me w/ cable clutter at least. Teehee.
 
Tesla was able to transfer energy with the minimal loss and light up the bulb from the distance of 20km.

Another 100 years and somebody will probably be able to understand Tesla's work.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Link to that?
Click to expand...

I don't have English source but if anybody can read Serbian, here it is:

http://milan.milanovic.org/math/srpski/tesla/tesla33.html

Edit: A nice article that explains some of Tesla's work in wireless power transmission:

http://www.teslatech.info/ttmagazine/v1n4/valone.htm

Furthermore, the power loss experienced by Tesla’s pulsed, electrostatic discharge mode of propagation was less than 5% over 25,000 miles. Dr. Van Voorhies states, “...path losses are 0.25 dB/Mm at 10 Hz,” which often is difficult for engineers to believe
Click to expand...
 
dmw007 said:
I couldn't even understand the headline.... :eek: :p ;)
Click to expand...

Actually, Serbian is one language with 2 alphabets, cyrillic and latin. There is one-to-one mapping. For example:

N I K O L A T E S L A (latin alphabet)
Н И К О Л А Т Е С Л А (cyrillic alphabet)

Some symbols are same, so all you have to learn is about 20 new letters :)
 
Read this in the paper this morning. The article doesn't mention desktop computers, simply "laptops" which suggests to me that there won't be much power floating around the room. Which I'm cool with, I've seen maaaany more laptops with a higher power usage than my C2D iMacs :)

Needless to say this is really great. I can't wait to see where we end up in the next few years. Steorn will be demonstrating their 400% effecient "perpetual energy" device next month, and now this wireless power.
 
tutubibi said:
Actually, Serbian is one language with 2 alphabets, cyrillic and latin. There is one-to-one mapping. For example:

N I K O L A T E S L A (latin alphabet)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (cyrillic alphabet)

Some symbols are same, so all you have to learn is about 20 new letters :)
Click to expand...


Great, now all I have to do is learn Latin! :p :D :)
 
Reading this makes me think of the 80's sci-fi movie The Quiet Earth.

If I remember correctly, the premise was that an apocalypse (or a dimensional shift into a parallel universe) was caused by a government plan to create an energy grid in the atmosphere. Disappeared everybody on the planet except those on the verge of death.

Well, even if that isn't likely to happen, it's probably the easiest way to create a cancer cluster in your very own living room.

Or is that my inner luddite speaking?
 
im not sure of the situation in the states from what i gather its totally different (excluding possibly california), but over here in england we're all 'Going green' or rather being forced to by supreme ruler blair and our numerous local gustapo offices (known as the town councils)
with their enforced recycling collections...

anyway... anything short of 100% energy transfer is not gonna fly over here, we've got a looming energy crisis because they've forgotten to build any new power plants, so basically this is gonna struggle to get government and subsequently public approval in this country.

great idea though, to be truly wireless, wow!
 
MIT page

I found an MIT page here:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/wireless-0607.html

"It was probably the sixth time that month that I was awakened by my cell phone beeping to let me know that I had forgotten to charge it. It occurred to me that it would be so great if the thing took care of its own charging."


Been there (the phone-not-charging part, of course, not the Eureka moment.)
 
This would be cool if energy became like wireless internet. You could have every device in a room hooked up to an energy 'station'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back