Witricity -Electrifying or Electri-Frightening?

Wireless electricity has been a techies dream for years, and now it’s a dream come true. Though the technology is still in its infancy, there is something truly amazing about a 60-watt bulb lighting up spontaneously 7’ from the nearest power source, without any wires marring the view.

It is very possible that "WiTricity" will someday make it possible to carry laptops and cell phones that don’t need batteries. That’s just the beginning really, there are literally thousands of applications for wireless electricity. Imagine a world without batteries or electric plugs—some say it’s possible. Perhaps someday even our robot overlords will be able to enjoy charging up without having to plug in.

For those of you who saw the Hugh Jackman movie The Prestige, you may remember how a man named Tesla built him a strange device. You were probably preoccupied ogling Scarlett Johanssen, but try to recall all of Tesla’s bizarre electrical experiments. Nikola Tesla really was a famous early 20th century electrical engineer who used huge coils to successfully transfer a tiny amount of energy. You could say that Tesla was the founding father of Witricity. Sadly for Tesla, he was never able to find an efficient way to transfer usable amounts of electricity. Even if he had, Edison would have just beaten him up and taken it.

Seriously though, witricity would be considerably less annoying than cords and batteries in many situations. Team member Prof Marin Soljacic is really bugged by his Roomba quitting on him when he needs it most, for example. After all, one needs the presence of mind, only allowed by a clean floor, when inventing the technology of the century.

"At home, I have one of those robotic vacuum cleaners that clean your floors automatically. It does a fantastic job but, after it cleans one or two rooms, the battery dies."

Well, thanks to Soljacic and his colleagues we many soon have to suffer such indignities no more! On the other hand, there has been some concern over these types of wireless technologies possibly causing irreparable radiation damage to the human brain, but obviously it’s worth not having to plug in your Roomba.

Actually, concerns have been raised about a possible link between electromagnetic waves and cancer. Here once again, Soljacic saves the day. The dear professor realized that instead of irradiating the environment with electromagnetic waves, a power transmitter could fill the space around it with a "non-radiative" electromagnetic field. Essentially, energy would only be picked up by gadgets specified to "resonate" with the frequency. At any rate, Soljacic believes that the technology can be developed to be relatively safe, although working out the details will not necessarily be easy.

Some scientist would also like us to be more aware of the birds and the bees, and I’m not talking about the talk dad had with you. I’m referring to the speculation that a birds’ navigation system, which relies on electromagnetic fields, are being interfered with by this type of technology. It is even suspected that the mysterious decline in the bee population could be related to having their homing systems “smogged” up. In the latter case, some say Wi-Fi has been cleared, as the likely cause is a type of fungus, but there is still some controversy.

Another study has advised against having homes and schools near power pylons because of the possible risk of illness, particularly childhood leukemia. Recently a British government adviser warned children should not place computers on their laps when using Wi-Fi internet connections. Whether or not this new technology poses any kind of health risk remains to be seen.

At any rate, witricity will likely be developed with those types of worries in mind. Any possible risks will likely be mitigated though proper design and usage. With any luck, we’ll all soon be listening to our ipods without fear of having the battery die in the middle of our favorite song, and our Roombas will run non-stop.

Posted by Rebecca Sato

Link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/07/nwireless107.xml