In an experiment that would have made electromagnetic innovator Nikola Tesla proud, researchers at MIT - the one in Massachusetts, not Manukau - have completed a wireless electricity test.
The research team announced last week that they juiced up a 60-watt light bulb using WiTricity, the name the clever MIT folk have given the wireless electricity source they are developing.
The WiTricity was generated using two copper coils, one attached to the bulb and the other to a power source. The power coil emitted a field of magnetism to the unpowered coil, stimulating it to generate a current that powered the light bulb from seven feet (2.1m) away.
The MIT researchers say the WiTricity generated by the coils powered the light bulb in a way similar to magnetic induction, which is used in power transformers so that one coil carries power to another. Using an energy converter, any object near the WiTricity generating coils could be powered.
Now I don’t quite know how this works, but I do understand what it means…
Not only does it explain how the Jedi lightsabres in Star Wars could be powered, it also paints a picture of a completely wireless world.
The MIT researchers reckon that when WiTricity becomes commercially available in a few years, it could be compete with rechargeable batteries on PCs, laptops, cell phones, PDAs (if they stick a while longer) and iPods.
Depending on how the coils are configured, a single WiTricity source could provide power for several laptops or dozens of cell phones, they say.
This means no more cords and bulky batteries, and if coverage becomes universal, no more running out of juice at critical moments - after all we never see Luke Skywalker lightsabre’s running out of power the moment he faces Darth Vader…
What we don’t know yet is what effect the magnetic fields transmitting the wireless electricity will have on the devices - magnets and hard drives don’t mix well, remember. Or, what the effect will be on humans for that matter.
But surely the benefits will outweigh this… won’t it?
