View Full Version : Wireless electricity!


Gabe Strong
August 22nd, 2008, 12:18 PM
WOW! Check this out!

Intel cuts electric cords with wireless power system - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/story//afp/20080821/ts_afp/usitinternetenergychipcompanyintel)

I know it's not technically video related but we use laptops to edit video....well a lot of us do anyways. Thought it was pretty interesting.

Ethan Cooper
August 22nd, 2008, 12:56 PM
"The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently,"

I question both of those. I'm sure it's currently (teehee) less efficient than using a wired connection, and how many more wireless signals, beams, wavelengths, whatever do we need flying through our air? I'm sure all this wireless stuff can't be good for us. I say this as I sit in front of my 24" monitor that is blasting electrons at my face.

Can't wait till people begin hacking wireless power sources.

Shawn Kessler
August 22nd, 2008, 12:56 PM
wow sounds great but I still think it will be awhile before we see it in the common market place. Ya the possibility's are endless with it.


shawn

Dylan Couper
August 22nd, 2008, 02:31 PM
It's about time...

Next up: powdered water!

Robert Huber
August 22nd, 2008, 02:48 PM
It's about time...

Next up: powdered water!

Yep! Just add.. er... ummm... damn!

Wayne Morellini
August 23rd, 2008, 02:55 AM
It's about time...

Next up: powdered water!

Yes, called snow ;) .

The technology (what little I can tell) looks old. I own devices that already use magnetic fields to recharge, and there is wireless interfaces that works this way, how safe they are, well. To a certain extent I think everything is magnetic, even if it is so small as not to overcome gravity and effect the weight of an object on a kitchen scale. But you still are going to be jostling something back and forwards. There are even better techniques that have come up in the labs in recent years.

I find the statement about electric fields and magnetic fields (electricity forms electromagnetic fields) so I wonder if there is a deep trick to forming the magnetic fields.

Jarrod Whaley
August 24th, 2008, 01:26 AM
Didn't Tesla demonstrate the viability of wireless energy transfer like, 100 years ago only to be marginalized by individuals and corporations (Edison and Westinghouse, mainly) with a vested interest in running lines?

Wardenclyffe Tower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_tower)

Barry Smith
August 24th, 2008, 02:45 AM
Didn't Tesla demonstrate the viability of wireless energy transfer like, 100 years ago only to be marginalized by individuals and corporations (Edison and Westinghouse, mainly) with a vested interest in running lines?


Humans are not affected by magnetic fields ? Hmmmm ..... there is a lot of iron in blood and in some nerve cells. I think they have not done enough homework or perhaps the system comes with its own supply of folate and GPS navigation.

Bob Hart
August 24th, 2008, 05:31 AM
Radio-frequency transmissions, the television you enjoy, radio, cellphones etc., are wireless transmissions of energy which happen to have been deliberately modulated to convey an intelligent signal.

As a means of reticulating power, it is not so practical. For instance, how do you stop people from simply harvesting the available power without paying?

Jim Boda
August 24th, 2008, 10:42 AM
Humans are not affected by magnetic fields ? Hmmmm ..... there is a lot of iron in blood and in some nerve cells. I think they have not done enough homework or perhaps the system comes with its own supply of folate and GPS navigation.

Our entire planet is a magnetic field. DC power is much safer health wise than an AC powered magnetic field. It will be interesting to read more about the details of this wireless system.

John Miller
August 24th, 2008, 10:52 AM
Humans are not affected by magnetic fields ? Hmmmm ..... there is a lot of iron in blood and in some nerve cells. I think they have not done enough homework or perhaps the system comes with its own supply of folate and GPS navigation.

Those sources of iron aren't magnetic just like stainless steel isn't magnetic though containing typically >70% iron. If haemoglobin were magnetic, it would create all kinds of problems for patients having MRI scans!

In the Yahoo! article it says:

"Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer."

I'd like to know what kind of bulb. If it is a modern compact fluorescent then it has been done before. People have demonstrated that full size fluorescent tubes can operate without a wired connection.

I'm also wary of articles that can't get the most trivial science correct:

"It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields."

Elective? So it can vote?

Jim Boda
August 24th, 2008, 11:53 AM
...I'd like to know what kind of bulb. If it is a modern compact fluorescent then it has been done before. People have demonstrated that full size fluorescent tubes can operate without a wired connection...

Looks like a standard light bulb.... Intel: Laptops could get power wirelessly > News > PC Authority (http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/120402,intel-laptops-could-get-power-wirelessly.aspx)

It's definitely been done before. It's not new technology. However, Intel seems to be able to get more efficiency out of the process. Yet, they are still losing 25% of the energy. It definitly looks like a short range system.

John Miller
August 24th, 2008, 12:07 PM
Just a thought to ponder...

All AC powered devices (that use transformers) are effectively wireless.

Greg Boston
August 24th, 2008, 09:15 PM
just like stainless steel isn't magnetic though containing typically >70% iron.

Really? Then why did I used to have such a hard time prying the magnet packs from our aluminum sputtering machines off the stainless steel tables in the wafer fab. It was one of the favorite practical jokes from a fellow tech.

-gb-

Peter Moretti
August 25th, 2008, 12:23 AM
Radio-frequency transmissions, the television you enjoy, radio, cellphones etc., are wireless transmissions of energy which happen to have been deliberately modulated to convey an intelligent signal.

As a means of reticulating power, it is not so practical. For instance, how do you stop people from simply harvesting the available power without paying?You're essentially talking about "solar energy" for non-visible, man-made light.

Nick Flowers
August 25th, 2008, 01:00 AM
I've seen a fluorescent lighting tube strike up and glow when brought underneath a high voltage power transmission line. With energy costs going up the way they are, we'll soon be begging the power companies to route new lines over our houses!

John Miller
August 25th, 2008, 07:00 AM
Really? Then why did I used to have such a hard time prying the magnet packs from our aluminum sputtering machines off the stainless steel tables in the wafer fab. It was one of the favorite practical jokes from a fellow tech.

-gb-

You're right. I don't know what my brain was doing yesterday - too near the power line perhaps!

Bob Hart
August 25th, 2008, 09:43 AM
QUOTE: Originally Posted by John Miller
"just like stainless steel isn't magnetic though containing typically 70% iron."


It is likely that your stainless steel worktop was thin stainless sheet laid over a thicker steel substrate or at least some steel framing underneath.

John Miller
August 26th, 2008, 11:57 AM
I retract my retraction(!)

All of the stainless steel objects I use in my day job (high pressure fittings, pharmaceutical equipment) are all non-magnetic. Most are 316 or 316L SS.

In a strong enough field, materials such as aluminum become magnetic (e.g., within an MRI coil).

Barry Smith
September 2nd, 2008, 09:02 PM
If the magnetic field is strong enough the whole body becomes magnetic. However, that is not due to the iron in the blood but the atomic structure of hydrogen.

YouTube - levitating strawberry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEC9G8JUKW8&feature=related)

YouTube - Levitating grasshopper (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVmpOH1jzO4&feature=related)

Xavier Etown
September 4th, 2008, 03:11 PM
Makes me think about the movie A.I., near the end, when the mechas "wirelessly resurrected" the boy robot. I suppose art imitates life. Or is it the other way around?

Mark Kenfield
September 4th, 2008, 06:38 PM
Is anyone else worried about the sort of tumours something like this is probably going to cause. All the various microwave rays and other things we've got shooting into skulls from our shiny new iPhones and such are bad enough, but actual electricity?

Call me backwards, but I find this stuff a little unsettling.