We’ve had a flurry of interest on Tyler’s piece, prompting the MoGo Think Tank to extend the topic into a second day.

So, wondering if wireless electricty is for real?

It is. In fact, it was over 6 months ago that the news first began to go public with the advances being made in transmitting electricity safely without cords.

Last November, the BBC did a piece based on some findings by a group of physicists at a school near and dear to my heart - the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

They interviewed MIT’sAssistant Professor Marin Soljacic , who talked about what spurred the research:

“There are so many autonomous devices such as cell phones and laptops that have emerged in the last few years. We started thinking, ‘it would be really convenient if you didn’t have to recharge these things’. And because we’re physicists we asked, ‘what kind of physical phenomenon can we use to do this wireless energy transfer?’.”

Thus, the race to invent Wireless Electricity (or “WiTricity” as the MIT folks call it.)

The first innovation is Low-energy transmission. It’s a way of sending a limited amount of power, via RF (radio frequency). Just like tuning into that station that always plays those soulful Robert Johnson licks in the car, this technology is broken down into two pieces: broadcast and reception - an A to B exchange of information (in this case, power).

Two months after the BBC piece, a company called Powercast introduced their system of Low Energy transmission at a January conference. The company plans to apply it to a number of products that will come to market this year. The “Powercast System” is only available for gadgets with low power needs (maximum: 6 volts) - but these are many. Including: LEDs, computer peripherals, wireless sensors, and medical implants.

6 volts, though? Wasn’t enough to float the Soljacic Team’s boat.

They’ve innovated something called Evanescent Wave Coupling. By February, Dr. Soljacic and his partners were ready to publish their findings; “Efficient wireless non-radiative mid-range energy transfer“.

Simply put…

Uh, there’s no ’simply put’ in this breakthrough.

Basically, electromagnetic waves are transmitted (tunnelled) from point A to B, where they are translated back into the form of electricity that is commonly consumed. Again, with limitations. First in the amount that can currently be effectively transmitted (about enough for 100 watt light-bulb) and distance (about 7 meters).

These limitations are not expected to stand, however.

Want the actual math? See Quantum Tunneling, which has the formulas.

Want the applications in your technology? A non-dying cell phone? A perma-charged iPod??

Hang on, there’re coming….

PS… curious about Tyler’s Tesla Reference? Read here for the quick lowdown.

Tags:bbc, computer peripherals, electromagnetic waves, energy transfer, energy transmission, evanescent, findings, low energy, marin soljacic, massachusetts institute of technology, medical implants, mogo, physical phenomenon, powercast, rf radio frequency, volts, wireless electricity, wireless sensors WiTricity

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