Wireless Power: Old Idea, New Technology

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Wires are great, they served us for centuries, bringing useful electricity to us everyday; however, imagine that you have a printer, an external hard drive, a lamp, a set of speaker, a cell phone charger and a computer system in your bedroom, and they are all connected via wires.  You know when you need to take out your external hard drive and you have to spend forever to separate all the wires so you can get to your external hard drive’s wire?witricity

Life must be easier than this!!!  And it can be.  A century ago, a Nikola Tesla imagined a world without wire for electricity, but the technology at the time did not allow for his idea to thrive. However, just recently, MIT’s breakthrough technology, WiTricity, was born, allowing the possibility of charging devices and home electronics wirelessly.

Essentially, this technology works by producing a external magnetic field near the device at a specific frequency at which only that device will respond to. Then, through resonance, the electrons in the devices flow due to the external magnetic field at a alternating current pattern, consequently, producing electricity.

This idea is not only cool, but also very safe.  Magnetic fields do not penetrate materials like an electric field does; it can only arrange the domain of electrons inside an idea, and only works well with highly conductive metals.  A moderate degree of magnetic fields will not effect the health of people in anyway, and it is even safer than the power lines and radio waves which we live with everyday.

This technology is thoroughly explained and demoed by Eric Giler at a recent TEDtalk.

See for yourself this fantastic technology:

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I would say that this has truly fulfilled the dream of Mr. Tesla.  In the near future, let’s hope we can all get rid off the annoying wires that had brought us happiness with tears.  It is time for a transformation!  To learn more, click on the cool picture on the right.

Would you get this technology for your portable devices like cellphones, mp3 players, laptops, or even your home television?  I know I certainly would.