A non-radiative energy method for wirelessly powering consumer electronics, including mobile phones, laptops, and cameras has been developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They say this has the potential of automatically powering our household appliances without wires someday.
The MIT techspeak says:
“The idea of automatic recharging of consumer media devices is derived from the principles of physics. Wireless energy, traditionally, has been used inefficiently. Electromagnetic radiation such as radio waves project energy in all directions, and some power is then lost.
The method MIT researchers are currently working on instead contains the energy with a non-radiative field. Energy at a particular frequency can cause objects to vibrate. Two objects at the same frequency are particularly strong for energy transfer. A power transmitter such as a copper antenna resonates the electromagnetic waves, and then picked up by a receiver, such as dead cell phone battery.â€
Well, just like you, that went over my head too. But essentially, the idea harnesses wave energy to transmit power wirelessly, to recharge a battery or directly power a device. There are still a few kinks to be ironed out, so we might not see it work today. Maybe tomorrow.
[Via: DigitalCameraInfo]