Intel Demos Wireless "Resonant" Recharging 184
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."
Pacemakers? (Score:3, Interesting)
Pacemakers lol?
Seriously, this is nothing more than a simple application of a simple science experiment.
Wireless fields / broadcasts are a joke, and until we change the laws of physics, always will be. (Directed transmissions are not a joke.)
Dumb question... (Score:2, Interesting)
Isn't resonant vibration the way tons of energy transfers occur, including plain old radio communication?
What makes this so novel?
power consumption (Score:4, Interesting)
what is the power consumption of the transmitting coil when there is no load coil, also, does the power consumption increase or decrease based on the number of receiving coils??
and, what happens if you place a HDD, or your phone contains a HDD and is charged using this method, wont the magnetic field damage the magnetic media??
similarly, magnetic fields can mess up CRT's, try taking a magnet to a CRT screen..
Already have wireless power.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Dumb question... (Score:3, Interesting)
80% power efficiency.
Wasted Energy (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Already have wireless power.... (Score:1, Interesting)
The receiving end of this arrangement is a 12 inch copper coil. Unless your phone and iPod are fucking enormous, you'll still have to plug them into something. And you'll still have a tangle of wires bearing incompatible connectors.
In other words, this "invention" is no more useful than a wire, but loses 20% of your power and takes up a shitload of space in your room. Count me out.
Re:Pacemakers? (Score:2, Interesting)
Pacemakers lol?
Seriously, this is nothing more than a simple application of a simple science experiment.
Wireless fields / broadcasts are a joke, and until we change the laws of physics, always will be. (Directed transmissions are not a joke.)
I was doing this as a kid in the sixties with a one transistor radio powered by rf from the local broadcast station. The radio had two tuned circuits - one for receiving power, one for tuning to the station. It's exactly the same principle used here. So now we get thousands of new sources of radio frequency interference from these chargers! Thanks a lot.
Re:Pacemakers? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wireless power loses energy, so the only places it makes sense are were wires can't go or batteries can't easily be replaced.
It's also useful for small devices that would be safer without exposed contacts. Electric toothbrushes are the first thing that come to mind, though I'm sure there are plenty of better examples.