NationStates Jolt Archive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6725955.stm

US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires....

When two objects have the same resonance they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other surrounding objects. ...

Instead of using acoustic resonance, WiTricity exploits the resonance of very low frequency electromagnetic waves...

As far as we know the body has almost zero response to magnetic fields in terms of the amount of power it absorbs.

As a result, the system should not present any significant health risk to humans, said Professor Soljacic.

Sounds pretty interesting to me. I wonder if there are any interesting applications beyond simply powering things at a distance - any technologies that are infeasible with wires, but could work with wireless power...

Seems at the moment it takes a fairly large coil to be effective, and the useful range is only about six feet.

A neat enough trick, but not exactly practical.

Seems at the moment it takes a fairly large coil to be effective, and the useful range is only about six feet.

A neat enough trick, but not exactly practical.

Still, it's not a far distance from making household outlets obsolete.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6725955.stm



Sounds pretty interesting to me. I wonder if there are any interesting applications beyond simply powering things at a distance - any technologies that are infeasible with wires, but could work with wireless power...

There'll probably solar panels in space sending electricity down to receiving facilities back on earth in the near future. :cool:

Seems at the moment it takes a fairly large coil to be effective, and the useful range is only about six feet.

A neat enough trick, but not exactly practical.

So, what you're saying is that when things are first invented, they're not as sophisticated as they will be by the time they enter widespread use?

:eek::eek::eek::eek:

There'll probably solar panels in space sending electricity down to receiving facilities back on earth in the near future. :cool:

That'll require quite a bit of advancement in solar panel technology, though. They're not very efficient yet. I still say that we should turn the moon into one giant solar power factory then beam it back to earth with narrowband, high-power microwaves. We can dream, eh?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6725955.stm



Sounds pretty interesting to me. I wonder if there are any interesting applications beyond simply powering things at a distance - any technologies that are infeasible with wires, but could work with wireless power...

DAMNIT! Why is it that every crazy unrealistic idea that I have, gets turned into an actual invention?:mad:

Sounds great for everyone except those who have pacemakers.

It's only 40% efficient! A plug is near enough 100% efficient, I guess. When they get closer to that, its time to stop putting plugs on things.

EDIT: Actually, the most interesting thing from this is the manner of transmission - using magnetic fields instead of radiation.

That'll require quite a bit of advancement in solar panel technology, though. They're not very efficient yet. I still say that we should turn the moon into one giant solar power factory then beam it back to earth with narrowband, high-power microwaves. We can dream, eh?

Then a clone of Bush takes office and turns the moon into a real life death star. :p

Sounds great for everyone except those who have pacemakers.

Being able to recharge their batteries without invasive surgery is a bad thing then?

It's only 40% efficient!

I noticed that problem too, but they say that they're working on it. If it was 40% when it entered the shops, it would be bad, but 40% in lab experiments isn't too shabby.

N. Tesla was doing this in his lifetime. He was able to light a lightbulb from like 20 feet away (I think) wirelessly.

N. Tesla was doing this in his lifetime. He was able to light a lightbulb from like 20 feet away (I think) wirelessly.

Yes, it's a shame he ran out of funding.

Yes, it's a shame he ran out of funding.

Yep, he died penniless sadly :(

Brilliant man but horrible with business. He was also screwed over with many of his inventions. He had taken stuff to sell to the military and they would reject it and then build it themselves.

N. Tesla was doing this in his lifetime. He was able to light a lightbulb from like 20 feet away (I think) wirelessly.

And there's the good, old-fashioned Wireless radio! No wires, and no batteries required :)

Sounds great for everyone except those who have pacemakers.

Excellent point.

The totally wireless laptop! YAY

Interesting. On the other hand, I've had a bad experience with wireless. My dad's wireless keyboard and mouse combo start to crap out less than a meter from the receiver.

Somewhere, out there, I bet Nikolas Tesla is spinning in his grave.

DAMNIT! Why is it that every crazy unrealistic idea that I have, gets turned into an actual invention?:mad:

Because unlike Doc, you don't have the education or the skills to actually put the ideas to use?
It's only 40% efficient! A plug is near enough 100% efficient, I guess. When they get closer to that, its time to stop putting plugs on things.

EDIT: Actually, the most interesting thing from this is the manner of transmission - using magnetic fields instead of radiation.
Hmm...well, it is just a prototype. Given that this could potentially be quite useful, I can certainly see some extra development on this.
Then a clone of Bush takes office and turns the moon into a real life death star. :p

...

Could microwaves of the power that would be gathered actually have that kind of effect?

Anyway, I'd be a lot more worried about figuring out how to keep the receiver pointed at the moon at all times, and how to distribute power after that, especially if one country had control over it. And can you imagine what would happen if a terrorist organization got control of the power distributor and cut off the world's electricity?

Putting all of our eggs into one such basket is foolish. Though the idea itself is definitely sound and could be quite useful, it can't be considered as a full replacement for everything.

does this mean we can create fields of pure energy to down incoming bombers/missiles?

Seems at the moment it takes a fairly large coil to be effective, and the useful range is only about six feet.

A neat enough trick, but not exactly practical.

I know someone else already posted something on this, but rarely when things are figured out are the first applications all that useful. None of us are posting on this forum using a Johniac (http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/johnniac.html), and yet computers turned out just fine.


IF you could get this to run along roadways, then you could use it to power electric vehicles without them being as limited on range.

Somewhere, out there, I bet Nikolas Tesla is spinning in his grave.

And trying to harness the power of his own perpetual spinning to power a giant electrical cannon.

Damn them for stealing the ideas of Nikola Tesla. Damn them......

And trying to harness the power of his own perpetual spinning to power a giant electrical cannon.

Which he will use to shoot...?

Which he will use to shoot...?

The mythbusters, for proving his resonance machine "busted"

There'll probably solar panels in space sending electricity down to receiving facilities back on earth in the near future. :cool:

We would probably use some kind of radio wave laser for that. Even then the energy gathered would be more useful for powering some kind of space elevator than cover the earth in solar panels (which would result in dead plants).

It's only 40% efficient! A plug is near enough 100% efficient, I guess. When they get closer to that, its time to stop putting plugs on things.

EDIT: Actually, the most interesting thing from this is the manner of transmission - using magnetic fields instead of radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation?

Microwave's much efficient.

Microwave's much efficient.

True, and visable light would be even more efficient.

Isn't there thermal blooming though?

Electromagnetic radiation?

Yeah, that's what I meant. You can transmit power using microwave radiation (anyone remember Sim City 2000?) but it does have the habit of cooking things, and is line of sight only. This uses a magnetic field, apparently.

Oh, by the way - I wasn't rubbishing the idea folks, just a tad surprised at how inefficient it was.

It is all inefficient, for now.

Consider superconducting wires. Even though they are still very expensive at seting up the system (high wire cost and high building support costs) they are much cheaper than they were a decade ago (could be getting close to the cost of the increased price of copper wires, though that still does not count the cryogenic equipment or maintenance.

EDIT: Magnesium diboride is much cheaper to create but needs an extremely cold environment [39k vs the 125k of the newer wire] so maintenance and equipment costs are much larger.

Maintenance costs are immensly cheaper (they superconduct under the temperature for liquid nitrogen, which is cheap to obtain and transform into liquid form than all previous needed coolants). They still cannot be used for homes (bulky cooling systems) but are getting to be competitive with wire when delivering generator level power.

Microwave transmission will probably be used for space based systems or planets with little/no atmosphere (such as mercury). If we ever get around to building a dyson satellite then it could be used to power space bases around the outer planets (though Jupiter/Saturn would probably use fusion reactors and more than likely be prosperous ship docking/raw resource planets).

I kept getting into debt in sim city 2000 (I had a tendancy to just make massive housing areas that didn't get filled up too well).

Hooray for the unification of the electric and magnetic laws!

does this mean we can create fields of pure energy to down incoming bombers/missiles?

At a range of about 6'.

I know someone else already posted something on this, but rarely when things are figured out are the first applications all that useful. None of us are posting on this forum using a Johniac (http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/johnniac.html), and yet computers turned out just fine.


IF you could get this to run along roadways, then you could use it to power electric vehicles without them being as limited on range.

Yeah, no shit?

I completely missed out on every improvement to every existing idea ever. Thanks ever so much for pointing out the glaringly obvious to me, because you know I didn't know!

The mythbusters, for proving his resonance machine "busted"

i was really disappointed in that episode i don't think they put enough effort into it.

Tesla has for a while now been an interest to me. while some of his ideas seem to be a little loopy to us, he had some really great ones that worked.

i was really disappointed in that episode i don't think they put enough effort into it.

Tesla has for a while now been an interest to me. while some of his ideas seem to be a little loopy to us, he had some really great ones that worked.

Problem is he was pretty much crazy. Exaggerated his results pretty frequently, mad outlandish claims he couldn't reproduce for anyone.

Somewhere, out there, I bet Nikolas Tesla is spinning in his grave.

Presumably one rotatation in one direction, and then the next in the other.

Excellent point.

What makes a pacemaker different from any other electronic equipment? If it doesn't make a laptop behave erratically, why would it have that effect on a pacemaker? The idea is to create resonance in a magnetic field, not just make a super strong field that causes chaos. If you haven't noticed, the entire earth is covered in a magnetic field - that's why compasses work.

It is all inefficient, for now.


I kept getting into debt in sim city 2000 (I had a tendancy to just make massive housing areas that didn't get filled up too well).



That's because it's based on actual city dynamics,... cities hates planning.

Somewhere, out there, I bet Nikolas Tesla is spinning in his grave.



Quick! Put a couple of magnets on him and surround his corpse with iron coils! We can use Tesla to create power! Then we can use a Tesla machine to transmit that power wirelessly to a cybernetic Chuck Norris!

All hail the wire-lessly-Tesla-powered-uber-killing-Chuck-Cyber-Norris-machine-thingy!

DAMNIT! Why is it that every crazy unrealistic idea that I have, gets turned into an actual invention?:mad:

Because you're not half as creative as you'd thought? That's usually the trouble...

Yeah, no shit?

I completely missed out on every improvement to every existing idea ever. Thanks ever so much for pointing out the glaringly obvious to me, because you know I didn't know!

We can only go with what you provide us.