I was reading about Marin Soljacic and his research at the MIT Physics department on Wireless Energy. I found it fascinating. The key idea is that energy is transferred through magnetism in the same way electric engines are powered but that this magnetism is created say around a room in a way that only objects designed to “tune in” to this magnetism, say a cell phone, receive it and get charged while everything else in the room is impervious to this energy “floating around”. Or at least this is what I think the idea is…..
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rod. on January 15, 2007 ·
Yup, Marin’s idea sounds fascinating indeed. It sounds so simple and magical, and those are usually the best inventions.
However, long before Marin, a “forgotten” genius named Nikola Tesla had already thought of wireless energy transfer. Here’s a great documentary on that (46 min long but well worth watching it):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5834867580747017149
PS: I don’t claim that Marin deserves no credit, or that Tesla deserves all the credit. I find Marin’s work fascinating indeed, but Tesla’s work is simply magical as he was many, many decades ahead of his time.
Antoin O Lachtnain on January 16, 2007 ·
The principle isn’t new, and isn’t even particularly far-out or complex. For example, many electric toothbrushes charge using a contactless system, for obvious safety reasons. It seems to be that the trick is coming up with a system that will charge all sorts of devices (small ones and big ones alike), won’t blatantly waste power, and won’t blow anything up …
Bernard on January 16, 2007 ·
Maybe we should make a “mobile” La Fonera which can move around with its own motor to provide best coverage
Martin Vives on January 16, 2007 ·
Seems like future is not gonna be as diferent from Sci-Fi novels as we could have thought!
Anyway, I think the real “future” should be, as Euronerd said, about taking energy directly from renewable energy sources which require as little transformation and human interaction as possible. Hence, they would require much less investment, making a very expensive resource as energy avaiable for everyone.
PS: Solar chargers for the OLPC?
Pierre Marissal on January 16, 2007 ·
Remember Nikola Tesla
100 years ago, Tesla had pioneered the teletransmission of energy at an incredible point. Some said he was able to transfer large amount of energy to the other side of Earth .
see very interesting video about Tesla on Youtube
Pierre
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Euronerd on January 15, 2007 ·
Well, something to think about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer
but mind you, don’t take it all on face value.
I think mankind should concentrate on free energy. like solar-power, wind- and water- generated energy.
To spend money in order to avoid to have to make a physical connection of some gadget to a wired power source, is investment in utter laziness, and laziness is the big spender of our natural energy sources. Think about it. Use a bike instead of a care whenever you can!