Tesla was onto something after all...

by Bruce Muliiken, Green Energy News

Imagine ordinary cars that had no wiring harness. Imagine homes that didn’t have a network of wires buried in the walls. Imagine electric vehicles whose batteries could be charged without plugging in.

Stop imagining. Start thinking about implementing and commercializing wireless electricity into our buildings, our vehicles and with every electronic and electrically powered device we own. It looks as though (though, no guarantees) that inventor/engineer/scientist Nikola Tesla’s dream of transmitting power through thin air is here. (But not quite as he imagined it.)

Watertown, Massachusetts-based WiTricity notes in an interview on BBC that its technology of transmitting power by way by of resonant magnetic coupling could begin showing up in commercial products in as little as a year. The company in its website describes resonant magnetic coupling: ”Magnetic coupling occurs when two objects exchange energy through their varying or oscillating magnetic fields. Resonant coupling occurs when the natural frequencies of the two objects are approximately the same.”

The company has developed its proprietary magnetic coupling technology to the point where energy can be transferred from as little as a few centimeters to as far as several meters.

WiTricity dreams of many applications for its technology:

— Small battery powered devices, cell phones, music players, cameras and the like, could be recharged without plugging in. Magnetic resonance sources could be recharging these devices as soon as they were in range.

— Larger electronics, like flat screen TVs, could be wall mounted without dangling wires or the need for custom hidden wiring. A magnetic resonator source in the room would supply power to a magnetic resonance receiver inside.

— Wireless and batteryless desktop computer peripherals such as mice, keyboards and speakers would be possible with one souce powering all the devices.

— In the industrial scene, think wireless industrial robots, cordless tools, and automated guide vehicles all powered from nearby or centralized magnetic power sources.

— The technology used in cars would mean the elimination of most of a vehicle’s wiring harness. The magnetic source could power lights, power windows, wipers, etc without the need for connecting wires.

— And battery powered vehicles too could benefit. No need to plug in. Park over a magnetic source and wait: no physical connection between and the power source and the vehicle’s battery pack.

News Source: Green Energy News