Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link as he spoke at the California firm's annual developers forum in San Francisco.
Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer.
Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.
"The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently," Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.
"It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field."
There has long been speculation that Nikola Tesla's numerous wireless power transmission patents involved using the Earth's magnetic field in some way. Similarly, the debate over the possibility for Zero Point electrical power generation arises from a contrasting approach to the same electro-magnetic principals.
Apparently there is something to all that after all.
The technology could also be built into plugged in computer components, such as monitors, to enable them to broadcast power to devices left on desks or carried into rooms, according to Smith.
"Initially it eliminates chargers and eventually it eliminates batteries all together," analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of Intel's wireless power system.
"That is potentially a world changing event. This is the closest we've had to something being commercially available in this class."
Previous wireless power systems consisted basically of firing lightning bolts from sending to receiving units.
Now, how soon can I expect to re-charge my (I wish!) Tesla Roadster from the streetlights as I'm driving?
No comments:
Post a Comment