Wireless Electricity
16th Nov 2006, 10:41 GMT
Researchers at MIT are resurrecting an old idea to eliminate the cable clutter of modern electronic appliances and gadgets. Wireless energy was first introduced by Nikola Tesla in the 19th century. The principle relied on resonating frequencies and specially tuned antennas. While Tesla's ambitions were to provide infrastructure power on an enormous scale, the latest research is focused on smaller transmission distances. According to MIT's Marin Soljacic, "There are so many autonomous devices such as cell phones and laptops that have emerged in the last few years ... We started thinking, it would be really convenient if you didn't have to recharge these things." The principle is easily demonstrated by an AM crystal radio project which is powered entirely from the received radio broadcast.