Intel Demos Wireless "Resonant" Recharging

Al writes "Last Thursday researchers from Intel demonstrated a way to recharge electronics from about meter away using a 'resonant' magnetic field. At an event held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the researchers showed off a pair of iPod speakers connected to a 30-centimeter-wide copper coil that received power from a similar, but larger, copper coil about a meter away. The recharging technique relies on a phenomenon called resonant coupling, in which objects can exchange energy when tuned to resonate at the same frequency. A similar approach was developed by researchers at MIT in 2007, and spun off into a company called WiTricity. This company has already developed a few products that use resonant coupling to recharge, including a car battery."

Intel expects this technology will be a hard sell

[Anonymous Coward]

As everyone's credit cards were erased during the demo.

They did expect users with paper currency and PMs would be more open to purchase.

Oh this is going to look cool

[ColdWetDog]

At an event held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the researchers showed off a pair of iPod speakers connected to a 30-centimeter-wide copper coil that received power from a similar, but larger, copper coil about a meter away.

I'm having a little trouble here with the concept. Instead of small white box plugged into the wall we have these freaking huge copper wires running in circles everywhere. Just doesn't jibe with the trendy iPod image.

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things?

This story resonates with me

[Anonymous Coward]

I get a real charge out of it.

Nicola Tesla

[FudRucker]

i always wondered what that coil was for
NicolaTesla [teslasociety.com]
he was recharging his ipod!!!

Test for other sources

[Lev13than]

Did they ensure that the iPod speakers were properly shielded against RDF interference? Now that Jobs is getting his strength back, I fully expect that Apple devices will discard with batteries completely and just feed off his sheer willpower.

Re:Oh this is going to look cool

[vertinox]

Just paint the copper wires white.

Re:Pacemakers?

[abigor]

I saw a documentary called Iron Man where this was done.

Re:Already have wireless power....

[Culture20]

Because now I can wardrive for power. Or, maybe I could drive a bumper-car on a road filled with these things.

Re:Oh this is going to look cool

[mehrotra.akash]

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things?

that would wipe out every credit card in the neighborhood, not to mention HDD's and CRT's

Re:Oh this is going to look cool

[Hognoxious]

Will it interfere with the reality distortion field?

useful, but dangerous

[Vanderhoth]

I read about this sort of thing awhile ago. http://www.pwrmat.com/ [pwrmat.com] There would be some nifty applications, you could build this sort of power distribution system into a wall. Then you just have to be within the proximity of the distributor. It would primarily be a convince/lazy thing, but at least you wouldn't have to worry about your kid putting a fork in a wall socket. Then again by doing that you could be removing a natural selection factor and end up with even more stupid people that otherwise would have been electrocuted and taken out of the gene pool.

Tesla would be proud.

[Kotoku]

Tesla would be so proud, many years later we are finally honing and putting to use technology that was before it's time.

Re:Already have wireless power....

[Anonymous Coward]

FTFA:
"the type of radiation shared between the two coils is nonradiative,"

Wow, they invented non-radiative radiation!

Wait a second...