[LAtimes]Wireless electricity system in the next 18months

11115 Views 172 Replies 102 Participants Last post by Chunky_Chimp, Feb 4, 2011

smitty5569

Discussion Starter · Dec 5, 2009

Quote:

Could this be the end of electric power cords?

A Massachusetts company said that within 18 months it will have on the market a wireless electricity system to power -- through the air -- lights, computers, televisions and even the chargers for electric cars.

The announcement was made at the TEDGlobal conference, a gathering of technologists and scientists, that wrapped up Friday in Oxford, England.

The company, WiTricity of Watertown, Mass., had previously demonstrated the technology, as had Intel Corp., which is also working on a wireless electricity project.

But the WiTricity announcement marked the first time that a company unveiled plans to commercialize the technology. At the conference, WiTricity's chief executive, Eric Giler, showed how an electrical coil -- placed in a wall or under a piece of furniture -- could power an LCD television several feet away, sans wires.

The basic premise isn't new. Legendary inventor Nikola Tesla, who gave us alternating current that made electricity practical, demonstrated low-power wireless electricity in the 1890s and worked on a plan to send it out over long distances.

The system from WiTricity (Wi-Fi plus electricity) is based on work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to focus the energy transfer, giving it enough oomph to make it useful.

Giler said the system was perfectly safe for humans. But people who left comments, both on The Times' Technology blog and its Facebook version, were skeptical.

"Do you expect this to be really safe?" asked Yasushi Zenno from Japan. "Would it not nuke someone by mistake sometimes?"

See less See more

Reactions: 1

Status: Not open for further replies.

1 - 20 of 173 Posts

FIX_ToRNaDo

· #2 · Dec 5, 2009

Indeed great news. Finally a company will make use of this great technology and and mass produce it

See less See more

Brutuz

· #3 · Dec 5, 2009

Shame Tesla never got this running fine or we'd have this by now.

FallenFaux

· #4 · Dec 5, 2009

Well now that Tesla's ideas are coming to fruition, I can't wait to get my death ray. Mwahahahahaha!

98uk

· #5 · Dec 5, 2009

How long until we are getting electricity lag in games

See less See more

Intrepid93

· #6 · Dec 5, 2009

But a power supply is built to run off of 230v-240v. So I assume the witricity wont be that much otherwise it would be dangerous!!!!???? Anyway all the pc needs is 12V max, I assume they can provide that much???. I am skeptical about the WATTS this can provide though.

sayuki288

· #7 · Dec 5, 2009

About time for wireless electricity.

MAXAMOUS

· #8 · Dec 5, 2009

You smell something cooking??

See less See more

tagurtoast

· #9 · Dec 5, 2009

Wireless electricity always reminds me of making your house into a microwave.

Mach 5

· #10 · Dec 5, 2009

...and 20 years down the line, 95% of the human race will have cancer...

zootielolo

· #11 · Dec 5, 2009

We already have wireless electricity, you listen to it on your way to work in your car

Jarhead

· #12 · Dec 5, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brutuz

View Post

Shame Tesla never got this running fine or we'd have this by now.

The reason Tesla never got it running is because there was no way to put a meter on it.

See less See more

Revenance

· #13 · Dec 5, 2009

I must say I'm skeptical about this - mainly because I have the idea in my head that it could interfere with other electrical devices, potentially destroying them.

However, I don't have much knowledge in that field, so I could just be making an idiot of myself.

allenottawa

· #14 · Dec 5, 2009

Get cancer in two steps:

1. Pick up a "harmless" wireless power device.
2. Wait about 10-20 years and your done!

Exutus

· #15 · Dec 5, 2009

I do not trust this.
Not for domestic use, not at all.

I don't even trust the Xbox 360 wireless control, nor my router.
Nevertheless, I use both everyday lol

ChielScape

· #16 · Dec 5, 2009

did someone mention wireless electricity?

See less See more

JKBenchmarks

· #17 · Dec 5, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by allenottawa

View Post

Get cancer in two steps:

1. Pick up a "harmless" wireless power device.
2. Wait about 10-20 years and your done!

When am I going to die?

When will I get married?

If you can predict the future so well, why not answer these questions?

See less See more

Win == True

· #18 · Dec 5, 2009

From Wiki:

Quote:

The MIT researchers successfully demonstrated the ability to power a 60 watt light bulb wirelessly, using two 5-turn copper coils of 60 cm (24 in) diameter, that were 2 m (7 ft) away, at roughly 45% efficiency.[4] The coils were designed to resonate together at 9.9 MHz and were oriented along the same axis. One was connected inductively to a power source, and the other one to a bulb. The setup powered the bulb on, even when the direct line of sight was blocked using a wooden panel.

So if I was to try and run my computer with this I would need to use 600W at to give my computer the 270W it uses. Man that sucks

(270W estimate based on hardware calculations, power supply efficiency and some overhead.)

See less See more

MadCatMk2

· #19 · Dec 5, 2009

I don't know if Tesla couldn't do it. I'm pretty convinced he could.
Maybe he did it. There's tons of things he didn't publish and tons that were lost.

... I don't even want to start thinking what our world would be like if we knew everything he did. Some even think with his knowledge on electricity he could had easily made superweapons that surpass every current one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Win == True

View Post

From Wiki:

Wanna guess what happened to the other 55% JKBenchmarks?

See less See more

2

dralb

· #20 · Dec 5, 2009

One of the other main reasons Tesla never got this off the ground for mainstream use is peoples fears and lack of understanding. They all assumed the same that most of you are. Cancer, electric shock etc. This is the future. It is the same as almost any other idea, it starts off as being very inefficient. Once they can refine it (and profit from it) it'll come around.

1 - 20 of 173 Posts

Status: Not open for further replies.