Intel demos a wireless power broadcasting system, villagers terrified

We've seen a number of wireless power systems come and go, but for all the hype-filled bombast and occasional working demo, the tech just hasn't gone anywhere -- but even with that background, Intel's demo of a wireless power system that can broadcast 60 watts of power up to three feet at IDF with 75 percent efficiency has us giddy with excitement. The system works using essentially the same magnetic induction principle as all the others, but Intel's seems the furthest along, and the company hopes to one day be able to charge laptops with it. Yeah, we'll take three.

Read - NYT article
Read - Pictures from the presentation

[jorge @ Aug 21st 2008 6:38PM]

Nikola Tesla

[▀█▀ █ ▀█▀ ▄█▀ @ Aug 21st 2008 6:41PM]

my exact thoughts, though I belive he had some much more ambitious setups

[steven @ Aug 21st 2008 6:47PM]

How the hell did you get that name? I want that!!!

[Techie @ Aug 21st 2008 6:57PM]

He's one of the greatest inventor of all time. I admire him hehe...

[Jon2309 @ Aug 21st 2008 6:57PM]

@ Steven
Type in "Charmap" (no inv commas) into Run. Then scroll down to near enough the bottom.

[OziD @ Aug 21st 2008 7:41PM]

did you really just call those quotation marks inverted commas?

[Tim @ Aug 21st 2008 7:46PM]

Not a criticism, but isn't the general consensus that Tesla's tech would have exploited the momentum of the earths rotation? i.e., using it would change the length of a day? just looking for clarification as wikipedia's entry (believe it or not) isn't crystal clear.

[Mike @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:36AM]

Transmitting power over 3 ft, huh? Hmmm....how about....uh......a wire?!!?!?!?!

[shadowarmy75 @ Aug 21st 2008 8:37PM]

I would think changing the Earth's rotation would take a lot more energy than Telsa had available.

[Mike10010100 @ Aug 21st 2008 9:29PM]

No way guys. You need to watch the history channel biography on Tesla. His only ideas were using the resonance frequency of the earth to provide wireless power to everyone, and creating a massive energy beam weapon.

Tesla is like my role model. Except for the dying alone and in a depressed state. That kinda sucked.

But no, his inventions would have no effect on the rotation of the earth.

[temp @ Aug 21st 2008 10:16PM]

Although ridiculed during his life, Tesla should take some comfort in the fact that he was played by David Bowie. I mean, that's gotta count for something. Come to think of it, I feel bad for David Bowie, since he can never be portrayed by David Bowie. Although he has been portrayed by Jermaine Clement, which is not too shabby.

[Tim @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:02AM]

Thanks for the clarification Mike. And to all the asswipes who low ranked me, whats wrong with asking a question? Sorry I don't already know tesla's lifework, What I'd read elsewhere i clearly didnt comprehend. now i know; no need to get your collective panties in a twist.

[hexhunter @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:14AM]

David Bowie has portayed himself, he did it in Extras and I'm sure many other things too.

Whether he was acting or not in that though, no idea.

[ChrisM @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:44AM]

What is really interesting is now with this technology there is a potential for electric cars to not need such large batteries and long down time for charging, this system could be embedded in streets or at stop lights. This truly could change some things, granted your relocating the generation of pollution from one place to a centralized power station, but with that one could then work on generating it in cleaner fashions.

[Technex @ Aug 23rd 2008 6:57AM]

█▬█▐‼

:D

[Matt @ Aug 21st 2008 6:41PM]

didnt Tesla demonstrate electricity over the air almost a hundred years ago?

[TEG @ Aug 21st 2008 7:18PM]

Not only that, but he proved that you could send the leads into the ground at Niagra Falls and get the power anywhere in the world. The reason it wasn't used, and instead we use wires and meters.... "It couldn't be sold". He couldn't get any backing for his plan as the backers couldn't charge for electricity if it was available to anyone, anywhere.

[KO'M @ Aug 21st 2008 7:45PM]

Okay... Tesla was smart, and as far as I am concerneed should be credited with the invention of radio and he is already rightly known for inventing our current electric distribution scheme. Tesla invented the brushess AC motorand step-up/step-down power distribution. B-power was just one of the many things that came from his later, somewhat unhinged, period.

He had a lot of them. Lets get it straight, Tesla was flat out briliant, and many of the things that were thought of as crackpotism turned out to have an actual theoretical and experimental groundwork. They just were not as feasible as he claimed.

Broadcast power is one of them. Tesla claimed he could broadcast "industrial" amounts of power, he could never prove or demonstrate it.

The niagra falls thing stemmed from his belief that the vibrations of the earth can resonate at various frequencies. And it does, on the freqeuncies he claimed, the Schumann resonances. But again, not to the degree he claimed.

So while I agree tesla was hard done by the scientific community, he didn't have a magig broadcast power system that big electricty didn't want us to know about.

As to the original pot ... SAFETY? OMG.

[Chad @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:24AM]

I think most people know Tesla did it first but what's key here is the 75% efficiency. I really don't know what Tesla's efficiency levels were but I'm pretty sure they weren't that high. Even at 75% I would consider something like this for charging and the likes.

[MadMike @ Aug 21st 2008 6:42PM]

efficienyc? Anyway, it would be cool to have wireless charging. You would have a truly wireless laptop that you could use non stop. That would be great.

[nerdtalker @ Aug 21st 2008 6:53PM]

I can tolerate most misspellings, but "efficienyc?" C'mon guys, even a cursory read-over could have caught that blunderd... er... blunder.

[zomg0t @ Aug 21st 2008 7:03PM]

Kinda makes all the laptop manufacturers' efforts for day-long batteries a waste... once this technology is capable of being implemented and becomes ubiquitous, which will probably be a long time away.

[Juxtah @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:59AM]

It's a great idea, put this technology in tables at internet cafes and other places so you no longer need to charge after a few hours use.

[rita hainsworth @ Aug 21st 2008 6:43PM]

Wow no plug!

[OziD @ Aug 21st 2008 7:42PM]

i'm sure theres a plug going to the device that broadcasts the power.

[marcin @ Aug 21st 2008 6:45PM]

yes he did Matt, and you know why he killed himself, its because electric companies would never allow him to bring his innovations to the world.

[broli @ Aug 21st 2008 6:48PM]

I bet in his grave he wished he open sourced his tech instead of patenting every little thought he had. Probably his biggest mistake in this greedy world.

[tekdroid @ Aug 21st 2008 7:03PM]

First time I heard anyone say he killed himself.

[Dan Halen @ Aug 21st 2008 8:15PM]

That's because he didn't. He died of heart failure.

[Eh @ Aug 21st 2008 9:37PM]

he didnt die, someone from the future went back in time to kidnap him so he could save the world

[PixelbackWriter @ Aug 22nd 2008 4:40AM]

And then NOD attacked the GDI and I won teh game!

I just love listening to all of the "theories" surrounding Tesla. It's almost more interesting than the work he actually did.

[Operation Northwood @ Aug 21st 2008 6:44PM]

Nikola Tesla have done that 100 years ago buddy. His notes were stole and he most likely was killed. Based on Tesla we have also HARP weather control earth quake generator, and zero point energy, tapping energy out of the vacuum. As Tesla said once: The future is mine.

[Oinquer @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:26AM]

stargate is killing you =)

[John @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:42AM]

Reminds me of a third grader's science report.

[Boyprodigy1 @ Aug 21st 2008 6:46PM]

Efficiency* And yes Tesla is my my personal hero and he did experiments with a lot of crazy crap we could use these days. Anybody else think its really sad that i had to learn all of this on my own and i didn't learn jack about it in my classes at school (just graduated high school)...

[Operation Northwood @ Aug 21st 2008 6:54PM]

Buddy, you are living in a age which dentist destroy teeth,(fluoride) , doctors destroy health, (vaccines etc.) and schools indoctrinate. As Hittle once said: "Let me write the texts books, so I will control the nations."

[galentroup @ Aug 21st 2008 7:23PM]

who's hittle? he sounds lovely

[Nano2e @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:11AM]

Dude...it's high school. You don't learn stuff in high school.

[Glenn Tobey @ Aug 22nd 2008 12:48PM]

I learned things in high school just not in class

[GiG4897 @ Aug 21st 2008 6:52PM]

Isn't anyone concerned with the idea of putting even more energy into the space that we walk around and live in??

[Brett @ Aug 21st 2008 7:38PM]

Nope. Not a problem. No matter what we may possibly do here on earth or this solar system will we fill the quantum universe with power.... .

To put it in perspective... the things we can see (Galaxies, suns, stars, dirt, molecules & atoms) only account for approx 4% of the universe as we know it.

So no.. Not a problem

[Jeff @ Aug 21st 2008 8:08PM]

@gig4897, absolutely. ...and also concerned over incredibly impractical and wasteful nonsense like this "in the name of convenience"

until it's 100% efficient, i'm not in the least interested. Even then, i'm not sure we really need to pollute the airwaves with more crap.


Unlike Brett, i have at least a loose grip on reality. You can ruin someone's life or well-being without effecting the entire universe.

[Mike10010100 @ Aug 21st 2008 9:37PM]

100% efficiency? Good luck getting that with any sort of power. All power has the slightest bit of resistance, even if it is a superconducting material.

Get real.

[bernardino @ Aug 21st 2008 9:43PM]

@Jeff Wow, so all that electrical wiring that runs over the streets and into my house is 100% efficient? Amazing!

[hexhunter @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:36AM]

People have to understand the types of energy being used here, this is Magnetic Induction, I'm no expert, but I believe that it's only Magnetic forces that are being "polluted", it'll probably be much more dangerous to your hard drive than you.

Also, I don't think 75% is a likely figure for the things it will mostly be used for, if there's one of these embeded in a table you don't have to keep your laptop 3 feet away from the table to charge it up, I'd imagine that it would work much better at close range, just like any modern Induction Coil.

Does your toothbrush charge when you leave it 3 feet away???

[Peter @ Aug 21st 2008 6:54PM]

great, now i can steal my neighbors' electricity too!

[Operation Northwood @ Aug 21st 2008 6:56PM]

BUSTED!!! Its you then, who is stealing my wireless internet sucka??? I'm your neighbor :D

[OziD @ Aug 21st 2008 7:43PM]

i'm sure everybody figured out the joke without you having to say "i'm your neighbor"

[Operation Northwood @ Aug 22nd 2008 1:55AM]

@OziD

Yeah, hehe, I'm just so used to people not understanding anything, that I try to make everything very well explained. I guess on technology sites people are a bit smarter ;)

[John @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:48AM]

Obviously my electricity would be encrypted.