Wednesday 2 April 2014
Wireless electricity? It's here
Katie Hall was shocked the second she saw it: a light bulb glowing in the middle of a room with no wires attached.
Looking back it was a crude experiment, she remembers: a tiny room filled with gigantic copper refrigerator coils -- the kind you would see if you cracked open the back of your freezer.
She walked in and out between the coils and the bulb -- and still the bulb glowed.
"I said: Let's work on this. This is the future."
What's the trick?
"We are going to transfer electricity without any kind of wires", says Dr Hall, now chief Technology officer at WiTricity, a startup developing Wireless Resonance Technology.
"But we are not actually going to put electricity in air. What we are putting magnetic field in the air."
It works like this: Witricity builds a "Source Resonator", a coil of electrical wire that generates a magnetic field when power is attached. If another coil is brought near, an electrical charge can be generated in it. No wires required.
"When you bring your device in that magnetic field, it induces a current in the device and by that you are able to transfer power."
In the Future
- Electricity will be transferred like WiFi router signals
- Smartphones will charge in your pocket as you wander around
- Television will flicker with no wires attached
- Electric cars will refuel while sitting on the driveway
- and much more...
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