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Scientists Move Closer to Wireless Power

Posted on: Tuesday, 12 June 2007, 10:53 CDT

A U.S. research team reports moving closer to wireless power transfer by lighting a 60-watt light bulb from a power source located seven feet away.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology team called their accomplishment WiTricity.

Although various methods of transmitting power wirelessly have long been known -- think of radio waves -- they are not feasible to use for power transmission.

In contrast, WiTricity is based on using coupled resonant objects, in which two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently, while interacting weakly with extraneous off-resonant objects.

Team member Professor Marin Soljacic notes: Once, when my son was about three years old, we visited his grandparents' house. They had a 20-year-old phone and my son picked up the handset, asking, 'Dad, why is this phone attached with a cord to the wall?' My best response was, 'It is strange and awkward, isn't it? Hopefully, we will be getting rid of some more wires, and also batteries, soon.'

Team members Andre Kurs, Aristeidis Karalis, Robert Moffatt and Professors Peter Fisher, John Joannopoulos and Soljacic report their research online in the journal Science Express, the advance publication of the journal Science.

Source: United Press International

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