MIT Wirelessly Powers a Lightbulb 394
kcurtis writes "According to the Boston Globe, MIT Researchers have powered a light bulb remotely. The successful experiment lit a 60-watt light bulb from a power source two meters away, with no physical connection between the power source and the light bulb. Details about WiTricity, or wireless electricity, are scheduled to be reported today in Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said. 'The team from MIT is not the first group to suggest wireless energy transfer. Nineteenth-century physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla experimented with long-range wireless energy transfer, but his most ambitious attempt - the 29m high aerial known as Wardenclyffe Tower, in New York - failed when he ran out of money. Others have worked on highly directional mechanisms of energy transfer such as lasers. However, unlike the MIT work, these require an uninterrupted line of sight, and are therefore not good for powering objects around the home.'"
Burnt out... (Score:5, Funny)
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
Apparently the power supply failed.
Only need a two foor diameter antenna... hmm... (Score:4, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer/ [wikipedia.org]
is wireless energy transmission new?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_tran
hmm... maybe not...
30s of wikiing...: the question I have: is what is new here?
Is it that they are using low frequency long wave lengths?
Even then... power constraints will be real, and I wonder about efficiency...
and the 2 foot coil attached to my cell phone or laptop certainly
won't improve its portability...
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The efficiency was reported to be only 40% -- higher than I would have expected but still pretty damn lousy when you consider a lowly wire would be damn near 100%.
If people are looking for cool ways to "wirelessly" charge a laptop, I think a better technology would be the placemat-like mats with the patterned conductors.
But wasting 60% of the electricity required to light a lightbulb, or to do anything, is a huge step b
Re:Only need a two foor diameter antenna... hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah, that's silly!
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The energy isn't wasted... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Only need a two foor diameter antenna... hmm... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Only need a two foor diameter antenna... hmm... (Score:4, Informative)
Exactly. A transformer with an air gap this large would have an efficiency lower by 5-6 orders of magnitude.
If we embrace nuclear power... (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course there's several hundred layers of mass public ignorance, greedy corporations and religious politicians who happen to be oil magnates in the way of that ever happening.
As I see it the only hope for the planet is Helium 3 reactors which could be sold to the public as a "clean start", even if the tangible benefits over existing nuclear power are mostly psychological.
{*} "Righ
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The goggles, they do nothing!
Mmmmmm...wireless (Score:5, Funny)
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Part list: 1 light bulb, 1 solar cell plate, a really bright flashlight.
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8p
Re:Mmmmmm...wireless (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mmmmmm...wireless (Score:5, Funny)
Induction? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Induction? (Score:5, Funny)
Chiefly by the differentiating degree of buzzword compliance.
Re:Induction? (Score:5, Interesting)
do a wiki lookup on the "earth battery"; after that, jump over to "Wardenclyffe".
People really need to stop thinking that hertzian waves are the only thing under the sun.
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Don't go near it with your credit cards or backup tapes though.
Re:Induction? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Induction? (Score:5, Informative)
Also check out this paper [arxiv.org] on their technology. Lots of great details, and there's probably even a new one out by now...
Re:It's special MIT induction! (Score:4, Informative)
I read the article. What is remarkable about this? What is the breakthrough? Even the article says that the breakthrough is merely that they had "followed through" what had been talked about previously. Which, frankly, is still really, really, wrong.
Here, have a look at this:
"William C. Brown
IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S): Bill Brown's Distinguished Career [mtt.org]
What did the MIT group do? They lit a light bulb. How cute.
Sometimes, MIT gets in the news just because it is MIT.
Re:It's special MIT induction! (Score:5, Insightful)
"How cute they lit a light bulb." Right. Its exactly the same because the end result is the same. That could go for pretty much any story here, right? Faster processor? "Bah, we were crunching numbers in the 50s. Whats the big deal here?"
This is great! (Score:5, Funny)
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also, on a related note:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vf_6EGHPWcU [youtube.com]
Re:This is great! (Score:5, Funny)
Are you retarded? Seriously, are you retarded? You want LESS reason to interact with hip coffee shop girls who also happen to have enough cash to buy a Mac? And geeks wonder why they never get laid.... sheesh!
Re:This is great! (Score:5, Funny)
You want LESS reason to interact with hip coffee shop girls who also happen to have enough cash to buy a Mac? And geeks wonder why they never get laid.... sheesh!
I just repeated this punchline to my wife. Her comment?
"I wouldn't worry about it, most of them are lesbians."
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I won't have to battle against the hippie-chick mac users in the coffee shop
Plenty of reasons to stay the fuck away, and not to actually fuck. The nagging must be intolerable:
-How can you wear that leather jacket?
-Why are there two mouse buttons on your computer, is it not as easy to use as my Big^WMac?
-Why don't you drive a hybrid already, *closes eyes* like I do?
-You'll have to get at least an ibook before you can meet any of my friends
-You must sel
Losses? (Score:2)
How is this for efficiency? Can you actually beat a copper wire since there wouldn't be resistance? What sort of distances does this work over?
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come on!
40%,no,6 feet.
It won't cause cancer and according to "King of the Hill" this might increase your sperm count!
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Re:Losses? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how well it takes to moving objects. Such a system could be a boon for moving us toward grid-powered electric vehicles if there were regular transmission coils embedded in heavily-trafficked roads, and they'd be a lot closer to the car than 7 feet, so they'd probably get much higher effiency numbers (perhaps even comparable to battery charge/discharge losses).
Cancer.. (Score:2, Interesting)
--
My most recent journal entry: wait, Slashdot used to be fun!? @#$!@, I missed it. [slashdot.org]
tag 'cancer' (Score:5, Funny)
(;
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Re:Cancer.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cancer.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cancer.. (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Cancer.. (Score:4, Funny)
Imagine how dangerous it would be as a weapon (Score:2)
How exactly would anyone stop wireless electric weapons? Not easily.
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Actually, this solves the immigration issue. (Score:5, Interesting)
What surprised me was the lack of imagination in the applications. They were talking about remotely recharging cell phones and MP3 players or letting you move around electronics without needing to find a plug. Well those are all fine ideas and quite obvious indeed but I saw nothing about the one area that seemed to potentially benefit the most from this: robotics.
All the pieces are there in robotics except for the one that this technology addresses: lightweight, high-density power. Oh, and let's not forget cheap.
Powering the lights without wires is a fine thing to do. I'm all for it. But what is the high energy deensity application that absolutely requires mobility? It seems to me that there is one in particular and that is robotics.
Moreover, this technology has a limitation of range that actually becomes a feature when applied to robotics. As we know all too well in the age of Iragi battle drones Asimov's laws of robotics are a fantasy relic of a time that couldn't imagine how software would really develop. The truth is, robots can be dangerous and this kind of technology effectively puts a leash on their range. They can do whatever within the home, but they can't just go out and go for a walk. It's a classic example of a limitation becoming a feauture.
So how would it solve the immigration issue?
I just mentioned this range limitation. So then, how could we use this for agricultural robots that would alleviate the need for low paid illegal immigrant farm labor? No problem. Obviously tractors bring their own power sources into the field. So, power in the field is not a problem. You would simply have gangs of robots attatched to resonant inductor power modules hanging off arms of the tractor. Say each tractor controls six platoons of robotic field hands with six resonant inductor orbs. They could work twenty four hours shifts. One tractor and labor gang could harvest dozens of farms per season in a timely manner.
If you need higher power, that's not a problem. There's no reason this technology is limited to 110volts. You can use 600V or 1200V. As much as you need. Your robotic workers would be as powerful as necessary.
Not only would it eliminate the need for foreign labor, it would also reduce the need to use high impact farming techniques such as posioning the soil with bromide gas and laying down plastic mulch. These things are done in the name of economy because it's too expensive to have human labor go through a farm and pick weeds. Monocrops are also planted for the same economic considerations. By dramatically shifting the labor equation you would enable a vast increase in the use of organic farming techniques.
The implications of this technology are far more revolutionary than re-charging an MP3 player.
No, it doesn't. (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone with a robotics degree from Carnegie Mellon, I feel to compelled to point out that you're ignoring just how abjectly stupid and incompetent robots still are. We do not have anywhere near the level of AI needed for robot farmers to deal with the messy, filthy, ever-changing world of a farm. Automatic tractors that can plow fields or spray crops, yes. Weeding and picking fruit, no. Power isn't the problem; intelligence is.
Re:Cancer.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Proof positive in my book that women are the result of genetic damage.
I'm sure the power requirements are much lower, but yeah it's all about power level and exposure time. It could be handy for things that normally don't have anyone around, like runway lights that could light up with application forward looking radar or maybe something on the highway that could take advantage of the various auto-braking systems that are finding their way onto cars and trucks.
RF jobs - girls (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW, the combination of WiTricity and Pendry looks like a marriage made in heaven -> Metamagical materials and cargo cult electromagnetics go together...
Not the first remotely powered lightbulb (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.boxyit.com/r/index.htm [boxyit.com]
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MIT isn't the first. (Score:4, Informative)
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Wow. 100 years and they finally caught up with... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow. 100 years and they finally caught up with. (Score:2, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz #Electromagnetic_research [wikipedia.org]
probably at around 50 MHz rather than 10 MHz but pretty similar. He didn't have a 60W bulb to power at the time (Where's Edison when you need him?) but he got a *spark* at similar distance. He even made it work through a box.
I know, the difference is related to how the filed is/was generated but this certainly isn't new.
n6gn
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if only bucky fuller and n tesla could have worked on the world electircal grid together
Re:Wow. 100 years and they finally caught up with. (Score:2)
bring out the tinfoil (Score:2)
Re:Wow. 100 years and they finally caught up with. (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I am a bit miffed at the MIT folks for not giving credit where credit is due. This is the second article I have seen in the last month or two on this topic and they hardly even mention the fact that this is a key Tesla invention that was in fact accomplished by him and repeatably demonstrated. To read the articles one would think that the folks at MIT just sat down last week and invented this all by themselves when it is simply not true.
It *is* the case that Tesla is a "fan favorite" of the same type of folks that like to believe in free energy machines and it *is* the case that his *commercial* attempt at providing wireless power was never finished, but the technique and the methodology behind it was sound and I think even patented by Tesla.
To ignore his achievements, simply because many years after his death the man has gained some tertiary association with the lunatic fringe is a bit outrageous to my mind. The particular article referenced here even goes out of it's way to say that Tesla tried wireless power but "failed" (even though they mention off-handedly that it was only through lack of funds, not through any technical problems).
Tesla invented this technique, plain and simple. And those articles that fail to mention it are doing history a great dis-service.
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It *is* the case that Tesla is a "fan favorite" of the same type of folks that like to believe in free energy machines and it *is* the case that his *commercial* attempt at providing wireless power was never finished, but the technique and the methodology behind it was sound and I think even patented by Tesla.
To ignore his achievements, simply because many years after his death the man has gained some tertiary association with the lunatic fringe is a bit outrageous to my mind. The particular article referenced here even goes out of it's way to say that Tesla tried wireless power but "failed" (even though they mention off-handedly that it was only through lack of funds, not through any technical problems).
Speaking of people picking on Tesla, dis you ever see Edison's FUD [newscientist.com] about the dangers of alternating current?
My own conspiracy theory about Tesla is that his lack of funding was due to his old nemesis.
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The movie The Prestige explores that at some length.
rj
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Re:Wow. 100 years and they finally caught up with. (Score:5, Informative)
The opening paragraph of their earlier paper:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0611/0611063.
In the early days of electromagnetism, before the electrical-wire grid was deployed, serious interest and effort was devoted (most notably by Nikola Tesla [1]) towards the development of schemes to transport energy over long distances without any carrier medium (e.g. wirelessly). These efforts appear to have met with little success. Radiative modes of omni-directional antennas (which work very well for information transfer) are not suitable for such energy transfer, because a vast majority of energy is wasted into free space. Directed radiation modes, using lasers or highly-directional antennas, can be efficiently used for energy transfer, even for long distances (transfer distance LTRANSLDEV, where LDEV is the characteristic size of the device), but require existence of an uninterruptible line-of-sight and a complicated tracking system in the case of mobile objects. Rapid development of autonomous electronics of recent years (e.g. laptops, cell-phones, house-hold robots, that all typically rely on chemical energy storage) justifies revisiting investigation of this issue. Today, we face a different challenge than Tesla: since the existing electrical-wire grid carries energy almost everywhere, even a medium-range (LTRANS fewLDEV) wireless energy transfer would be quite useful for many applications. There are several currently used schemes, which rely on non-radiative modes (magnetic induction), but they are restricted to very close-range (LTRANSLDEV) or very low-power (~mW) energy transfers [2,3,4,5,6].
Tesla was the original mad scientist (Score:5, Funny)
Just because Tesla was a genius doesn't mean he wasn't also insane. He invented a great many useful and wonderful things that are very important to the infrastructure of modern society, and was at times denied credit by jealous and antagonistic rivals, but he had many eccentricities, particularly in his later life, that point to him not having been entirely well in the head. He refused to eat where others could see him, freaked out about other people's hair touching him, and generally seems to have had serious problems maintaining normal interpersonal relationships with other people.
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Fluorescent tubes and power lines (Score:2)
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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=high%20tensi
They should make me the editor (Score:5, Funny)
The successful experiment to lit a 60-watt light bulb
It should be "to lite a 60-watt light bult." Duh?
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Re:They should make me the editor (Score:4, Funny)
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What about a spelling nazi who looks like a grammar retard?
P.S. s/head's/heads/
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Which is why you'd think "editors" would actually, you know, edit.
Do they get paid for this? Can I be one?
An air coil transformer?? (Score:4, Insightful)
the holy grail of engineering (Score:2, Insightful)
So if theres an error with the energy transmission (Score:2)
Possibly a patent infringment (Score:2)
In any case - not being able to look at the site, hard to tell but it's old snow - almost a century if that's what they do.
Actually, there is/was a law (in DE) to make it illegal to light your house by "wireless" electricity near a radio transmitter. Just put in two wires on a bulb and it lights up.
Isn't this just a transformer with no UL approval? (Score:2)
How can 60W induced in a coil much smaller possibly meet any regulatory requirements?
BTW, try to stand under a high power line with a fluorescent tube at night, and it will light up. No coil needed.
Re:Isn't this just a transformer with no UL approv (Score:3, Interesting)
The FCC has (had?) an exemption that allows RF testing on the site of a college / university.
If you tried this off-campus, you would be toast. The BBC article mentioned a 40% efficiency. For a 60 W light bulb, this implies about 150 W of total input power and 90 W of losses. Some of these losses must be RF losses. The device must be over the 1 W maximum transmitter power limit of the FCC for personal use, assuming the FCC would even permit the device.
The HF frequency range (10 MHz) is used extensivel
Someone... (Score:2)
Large deal... (Score:5, Interesting)
I know where that transmitter is being used today! (Score:2)
Actually I'm pretty sure it's an idiot with a tweaked out auto CB and a 1000W linear but the results are the same.
Uncle Charlie is as useless as ever.
Ummm This isnt new (Score:2)
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40% efficiency (Score:5, Insightful)
Wacom (Score:4, Interesting)
Just saying.
How is this different... (Score:2)
Let me get this straight... (Score:3, Funny)
Old technology (Score:2)
Also you could take a regular house light bulb and throw it up in front of a military radio transmitter/disk and it would go off like a camera flash.
What this means is that for there to be wireless power transmission there is probably something that can cook a human too.
Why this is important. (Score:5, Informative)
In short, this is NOT the same as holding a flourescent tube under a high voltage powerline. The MIT method uses controlled power tranmission over larger distances (2m or 6ft). The technique uses resonance frequency but has 40% loss, which is very bad meaning it is only 60% efficient. Many modern PSU (Power Supply Units) are 90%+ efficient. Unless they increase the efficiency, the power industry probably won't be jumping on board anytime soon.
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Kid, See the Phsychiatrist - Room 604 (Score:4, Informative)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2377
[right fscking on]
And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."
-Alice's Restaurant, Arlo Guthrie
First place Nicola Tesla broadcasted HF power around the world. [Colorado Springs, CO] - 1 wire, many bulbs.
At one point he so overloaded the local grid he burned up the Plant turbines, where upon he sent his assistants to rebuild it properly - no charge of course.
Fascinating man.
http://www.teslascience.org/archive/descriptions/
The City of Colorado Springs, CO ignores Tesla historically [think of what else resides there], I was at this very spot in '05 - the neighborhood is suburban, the people in the house that occupy this historic site - haven't got a clue of what they're sitting on. None of them do, "never heard of 'em."
Tesla's Wardenclyffe plant. [Wardenclyffe (now Shoreham) on Long Island]
http://www.teslascience.org/archive/descriptions/
Where Westinghouse, to whom Tesla had forgiven millions in royalties, abandoned him. Frightened that his AC empire would crumble.
See, Niagara Falls:
http://www.teslascience.org/archive/descriptions/
Truly the most. ignored. genius. ever.
Biological Effects (Score:4, Informative)
An assertion completely invalidated by the use of "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation" (TMS). Stick those three words into PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez) and you'll get lots of references (some false positives, but plenty of true ones).
It's presently being used to treat things like depression. Not because it does anything beneficial, but rather because it induces overload into the neural circuits under the coil, effectively shutting that area off from organized neural processing. Until we were able to get better focus and so use less power, about all it was good for was inducing seizures. That's still what it does, just on a scale that doesn't involve uncontrolled spreading of the over-activation. Even when the power is subcritical for inducing the localized overload, it still causes negative effects like massive headaches. No matter what frequency this widget runs at, there's brain processes that operate at that frequency. The brain is an EM pink noise generator from 1 Hz (EEG) to at least 4 GHz (water molecule "squidge" rate, an essential component of membrane reactivity).
I've been on both ends of a TMS coil in the lab. I wouldn't have this technology in my house until it was cleared by the FDA.
Re:so if cellphone radiation might cause cancer... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:so if cellphone radiation might cause cancer... (Score:5, Informative)
The intense fields generated in MRI present more immediate and sometimes less manageable risks than cancer.
An MRI magnet can pull a stray hairpin across the room at 40 miles per hour. Hemostats, scissors, wheelchairs, patient gurneys, intravenous poles, and defibrillators have all been turned into projectiles capable of severe harm. When nonmedical people enter the magnet room, things can get even worse. In one instance, a police officer's gun discharged as it was sucked out of his grip; in another, a firefighter was trapped and nearly suffocated as he was drawn into the bore when the breathing apparatus strapped to his back became magnetized in the MRI room.
The phenomenon by which metal becomes spontaneously magnetized is ferromagnetism, which affects iron, nickel, cobalt, and many other familiar metals and alloys. Although most implants today are made with titanium or other nonferromagnetic metals, it's common knowledge that MRI systems can affect older angio and cerebral clips, bone pins, dental work, and even some tattoo dyes. That's the key reason patients are screened. What's less recognized is how MRI scanners may interfere with devices such as pacemakers, pulse oximeters, automated defibrillators, cardiac monitors, insulin pumps, cochlear implants, and vagus and other neurological stimulators.
Where a CT installation's lead shielding is designed to keep radiation inside, MRI shielding keeps stray radiowaves out. The focus is on protecting the magnet from interference, not the other way around.
Plate steel is the only physical material that can contain an MRI system's magnetic field. The lines of force penetrate brick, wood, concrete, cement--which means that not only people outside the MRI suite but even people and machines outside the building can be affected. Any steel in the building construction reshapes the magnetic fields in the MRI, and MRI magnetizes the steel in the building. So the levels of complexity are several orders of magnitude greater than a CT, even though they may not look all that different on the floor plan. Current designs using plate shielding, however, usually are not equipped to deal with the newest crop of 3 Tesla (3T) commercially available systems--and even higher-powered research magnets.
MRI magnets have been known to affect gamma cameras, nuclear medicine hot labs, PET/CT scanners, and other equipment--even those sited at what seems a reasonable distance. The extraordinary sensitivity of today's [imaging] systems--the same feature that makes them so valuable--makes them vulnerable to such disruptions. You don't want to expose them to anything significantly above normal. Basically, any magnetic force stronger than the one that makes a compass point north can disrupt or degrade some types of this equipment. MRI Facility Safety -- Understanding the Risks of Powerful Attraction [radiologytoday.net]