WiTricity Demos Apple's Wireless iMac Charging Station Concept

[eah2119]

Wow. I never thought I would live to see the day we can easily and safely power devices over the air without wires. Simply amazing.

 

[jonnysods]

Sounds like WiTricity are trying to get picked up in one of 's spending sprees!

 

[pecdg]

Nice story, a tale non the less.

Long time lurker, first time poster, but I have to elaborate a bit here since I have some background and have been researching Tesla's work for a long time. It is true that what WiTricity is doing is awesome but ponder this:

Tesla, over a hundred years ago, built a working prototype for a giant tower in upstate New York that was to be hooked up to the power plant (which he also designed) at niagra falls. This tower could beam wireless electricity across huge distances with no adverse health effects, since the EM waves being emitted are tuned longitudinal pulsed (DC) instead of transverse (AC) in nature (which is why high tension AC lines give people cancer).

Tesla built an electric car which he drove around the area that was powered by this wireless electricity and had no onboard charge carrier. Unfortunately, his financial backers at the time had no way to "put a meter" on wireless usage so they went with the AC distribution system instead so they could charge the plebes for their energy usage in a metered fashion.

Unfortunate side effect of our economically obsessed society... Over a hundred years later, we get excited we can power our keyboards and mice without batteries...

Nice story, a tale non the less.

Without getting into a discussion about pseudoscience, which I was trying not to, revisionist history is always written by the economic winners in any given conflict or competition.

It is very unfortunate that most college science programs discount relevant information, chiefly among them the difference between Maxwell's original equations (written in quaternions) and the Heaviside "reduction" model which followed.

The original equations were deemed too complex for most mathematicians and physicists so the descriptions of charge potentials and inherent vortex behaviors were stripped from Heaviside's later models, which were in turn ratified by the scientific community en masse.

It is important to understand Maxwell's original intent because it was these quaternion expressions that allowed Tesla to so easily manipulate electricity and integrate it seamlessly into our physical world. Discounting the work of these two men (Maxwell and Tesla) will get you nowhere fast in the world of theoretical or practical physics.

 

[Optheduim]

I like this...

i think its a really cool idea! this darn new aliminum apple wireless keyboard goes through batteries faster than the older white and clear keyboard...

how nifty would it be if we could channel earth's magnetic field to power everything? it'd be really green and electricity would be really free!! obviously that'd be a really long wayaways-- but im sure they have already thought about it.

 

[Shenaniganz08]

there was a lot of debate about this in the previous thread.

I guess we'll have to see. It's not "energy" that's being radiated. It's a magnetic fields that are alternated. Magentic fields have generally been considered safe (though some people debate that).

In fact, people even wear magnets to improve their health, so maybe there's a health benefit to Witricity.

arn

Don't forget about MRI scanners
magnets for the most part have been found to be safe

 

[sean.crees]

Don't forget about MRI scanners
magnets for the most part have been found to be safe

I'm of the firm belief that too much of anything can be dangerous. I've heard of people who died from drinking too much water. Just because it has the potential to harm you doesn't mean its bad. It just means you need to find safe thresholds. I'm sure someone somewhere has or is doing testing to figure this out.

 

[mrelwood]

I get a kick out of people complaining about the 1/2 watt of "radiation" from their cell phones being so dangerous ( BTW, the more radiation from your iPhone, the better connection you'll have), but won't complain about the 350,000 watt TV antenna sitting a few blocks from their house.

Isn't the amount of radiation decreased to the square of the distance?

Lots of people yelling "cancer" without understanding the technology.

I'm sure the developers don't undersand too well how cancers and other illnesses are triggered. I don't think anyone does.

the oscillating fields are being projected the same way not matter what is in that field...

Out of curiosity, what is your degree of knowledge on oscillating magnetic fields?

Or like two people tanning under the same light... or a water energy generator. if you have a river flowing and you put one wheel in the water to generate energy, that's 1 wheel... but if you have 3-4, so long as they don't interfere, you are getting a lot more energy produced from the same river. it doesn't run faster

If you swith on another light bulb, your household will start pulling more power from the grid.