What is the Future of Wireless Power?

mfbatzap writes "According to Firdooze, we have seen various devices that can free ourselves from wires at CES 2008. The manufactures, Wildcharge, Powercast and Fulton Innovation, came out with two different methods of transmitting power from source to the devices. Wildcharge and Fulton banked on magnetic coupling while Powercast decided to go with RF (Radio Frequency). So which technology will eventually prevail to be the future of wireless power? Or will the technological setbacks from transferring power wirelessly make it unrealistic to accomplish a wire-free world?"

I for one hail our new glowing overlords

[debatem1]

I have to wonder whether this announcement and the glowing pigs announcement are just coincidental...

Wireless Everything

[ShawnCplus]

Well my laptop has wireless internet and a wireless mouse, why not wireless power? I'd gladly accept a benign tumor or two if I could get more than 3 hours out of my battery.

Re:Wireless Everything

[ByOhTek]

well, I experimented with this. While the tumors were benign to me, after the third or fourth time I woke up to find one gnawing on the limb of a small child it apparantly captured/ate/killed, I decided it was time to have it removed. Apparantly three doctors were lost during the procedure.

Inventions magazine, 1936

[Anonymous Coward]

Good news everyone!

Radio-Fuel autos may solve gas problem!" [jalopnik.com]

All you do, you see, is you put this big coil above your car, and several gigawatts RF transmitters embedded in the roadway! Waste heat from the transmitters (and the melted tires, and the roasting humans) can even be used to ensure that ice never accumulates on the road!

When will people learn?

[Kuukai]

Wireless power was simply never meant to be. Nikola Tesla tried it, and look what happened to him. He's DEAD!
 
I wouldn't touch wireless power with a ten foot, umm... wire.

Re:I say neither, you say neither

[Jeff DeMaagd]

For the reasons you state, I'd put the people demanding wireless power among the people demanding pony-sized unicorns, at least for the forseeable future. I think pony-sized unicorns is more likely given how genetic engineering is going, but then the people that say they want them are going to say they won't pay more than $1500 for those.

Re:Woah

[ohtani]

Should I use batteries to charge my batteries?

will destroys

[Thuktun]

will magnetic coupling destroys your HDD

Oh, noes! They be destroying my disks!

This sounds familiar...

[arotenbe]

Wildcharge and Fulton banked on magnetic coupling while Powercast decided to go with RF (Radio Frequency). So which technology will eventually prevail to be the future of wireless power?

Blu-ray!

What is the Future of Wireless Power?

[Cctoide]

Hmm. Good question.

Someone will hire a company to implement this. This company will have a very stubborn, self-righteous president, but it will manage to get a working solar satellite into space, along with a terrestrial reception station. However, efficiency will not be as high as expected. Eventually a decision will be made to cut public spending on this technology, and the president will say, I quote:

YOU CAN'T CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!

A few days later, everyone will be weeping over the catastrophe caused by a mysteriously misaligned microwave beam. The president of the company will be nowhere to be seen, but his name will start appearing unusually frequently in pump-and-dump stock scams.

Re:Wireless Everything - Oblig

[cybereal]

<governator>It's not a tumah!</governator>

Re:is there a way

[spun]

Couldn't we attach batteries to hamsters and let them carry the electricity where it's needed? Just set up hamster base stations with battery chargers and hamster food, and place small pellets of hamster food in the battery compartments of the device needing power. It's so simple and easy, I'm surprised no one has thought of this before.

Re:I say neither, you say neither

[ghjm]

You were right - it's just that he doesn't have a low enough uid.