Fulton Innovation shows off mid-range eCoupled wireless power
By Donald Melanson 
posted December 29th 2009 8:16PM
posted December 29th 2009 8:16PM
Fulton Innovation has made some fairly impressive demonstrations of its eCoupled wireless power technology (along with a few less than impressive ones), but most of those have left little space between the power source and the device being powered. As you can see above, however, that's now changed in pretty a big way, with Fulton taking to YouTube to show off a new mid-range inductive power system. While it's obviously not quite ready for home use, this slightly unnerving contraption does indeed appear to work as promised, with it able to power a 12 watt lamp at a distance of 35 inches, or light up an LED at various points in between. Head on past the break to check it out this bit of black magic for yourself.
[Thanks, Brandon]
[Thanks, Brandon]
does this mean my paranoia of changing light bulbs is remedied? oh...maybe i should have just killed the power ^_^
I wouldn't want to stand between those. I'd need to get my tinfoil hat on first.
@hawkwood
i have a feeling that tinfoil would not help the situation..
I hope that guy is done having kids. :)
@One Love
Think of it as a free vasectomy.
@Colin S
Aw you beat me to it....I was gonna comment on his lack of "kids'
@hawkwood
I'm pretty sure it will cause cancer...
@James2432
I am pretty sure it will not... You have a better chance of getting cancer by standing under a light bulb.
Someone stated this is not Ionization (x-rays or gamma rays) which will cause harm to biological material. We are not talking about a lot of power here, so the chances of getting cancer is almost nil.
Wow! The uses for this I can think of.. if only I had some money.
I am frightened of things that I do not understand. I'm even more frightened when people tell me "not to worry, it's perfectly safe."
@MrScottFletcher http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer
it's quite simple if you read it slowly
David Blaine looks quite different in this video.
90% energy loss in under a meter? Seems like a horrible waste of power to me! Hope they can improve the efficiency.
@mojo8472 nah this is already end-consumer friendly. Say, your lightswitch doesn't pack a dim functionality but you don't like to turn on the light in the morning because it's too bright. Buy this thing and a: you'll have a dimmed ligth, b: you've got a futuristic and cool device taking all your space away...
Nikola Tesla used this to power a blimp over 100 meters away at one of the Worlds Fair. This is old technology >.>
@Mushrooshi exactly! That was in 1893. Here's the description of the event..."Within the room was suspended two hard-rubber plates covered with tin foil. These were about fifteen feet apart, and served as terminals of the wires leading from the transformers. When the current was turned on, the lamps or tubes, which had no wires connected to them, but lay on a table between the suspended plates, or which might be held in the hand in almost any part of the room, were made luminous. These were the same experiments and the same apparatus shown by Tesla in London about two years previous, 'where they produced so much wonder and astonishment'."
@sunsachs
Finlay wireless electricity, over 100 years in the making.
Imagine we will not need high tech batteries anymore for those pesky electric cars.
This has always been the solution to the battery issue.
AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING.
Hook my Prius up.
@Mushrooshi
If only politics dint had screwed up nikola teslas life in favor of Thomas Edison, the world would have been entirely wireless by now.
Its sad that such a great inventor was termed a maniac just because his idea wasnt profitable enough for the govt.
@mean
Isn't he also a vampire? Or at least had latent vampire genes reactivated?
@Mushrooshi
This should be old tech, but "the man" decided that the world wasn't ready for Tesla.
Bunch of fucking whacks.
So can this power my Mark III or what?
sorry if this gets double posted.
See the coils :) Do I need to take some of my furniture out first to make room for those pocketable coils?
Doubt there's any black magic there that Michael Faraday didn't know about nearly 200 years ago.
Of course, he didn't have to worry about people with pacemakers back then, either...
What! a 2 minute video showing it off and no popcorn demo!?!?!
I smell cancer...
@sergioelgin
Not cancer, burnt flesh.
@sergioelgin
Those are your last two brain cells burning up.
Tesla just whispered ho-hum from his grave. This is so 1920's.
@edf
Tesla's still pissed because he accidently erased the mag stripe on his credit card.
Simple induction or magnetic resonance?
Yeah this is ancient tech. Nothing new to see.
I am not gonna be close to this huge radiation source.
@mianmian
its magnetism, not any kind of ionizing radiation.
I totally see a patent on a process that is more than 200 years old and that every man in IT and science has read and learnt as mandatory knowledge.
I made one of these in my senior year of high school with about 20$ worth of stuff and a borrowed function generator.
ALL you need is some magnet wire, with a capacitor resonating at the same frequency. it took us about 2 days to make it and I can make one now in about 5 minutes.
this is a joke.
@manthan33
I know what this "company" is trying to do, just to patent wireless energy. Theses guys think that they're smart, come on!
@manthan33
I think you are missing the point. Just like CD's were invented years before they were commonly used; wireless power is still in its infancy. The question is how will they bring it to market and will the benefits outweigh the costs?
That is great you made a cheap science project for school, but to say that their project is a joke is laughable. Can your experiment power a DVD player or an Xbox or maybe even a TV? That is the direction these companies are moving to. Obviously, the light bulb is just for show. Are you going to be that guy that kicks himself for not being the next Edison?
Also, who doesn't want wireless power? It would be great to walk into an office or a home and not worry about the notebook or cell phone running out of juice.
Theres an app for that..?
Wouldn't a light and solar panel be equally as effective?
Yo, FULTON, IMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT NIKOLA TESLA HAD THE BEST WIRELESS ENERGY TRANSFER OF ALL TIME.... OF ALL TIME!
Okay, seriously, you've replaced a 3 foot wire 3/8" across with two cylinders two feet in diameter and 10 inches thick each. How is this progress?
I'd totally want to use this to charge my phone wireless.
future looks bright, future looks empowerd
boringest video demonstration ever
Am I the only one who thinks that this guy looks like David Hasselhoff?
Great, you've managed to "invent" the concept of two coaxial coils with an AC current, now if you'd only put iron in between them you'd be close to the level of tech we had in the late 1800's. It would seem that the innovation part of Fulton Innovation is not to be taken seriously.
Not only is this old technology, but people seem to forget why we are not utilizing it. It is incredibly inefficient. The greater the distance the worse it gets. On one hand everybody is being told to unplug the big block power adapters when not in use because they waste electricity. Then we have everybody scrambling for wireless charging of devices (Palm Pre Touchstone) and those pads for other devices. Not only is there a waste in turning the AC in your house to DC for the device, but even more so when you do it with induction.
For a culture screaming for more green and less waste, we sure seem to have some learning to do as to how to achieve greenness.
This isn't new, it's just inefficient. (Ever hear of induction coils?)
My Sonic1 toothbrush is charged via a similar technology.
It is interesting to see a lot of the commentators are skeptical about this technology. I work for a company that provides equipment to a couple of other organizations that are developing similar concepts is intriguing. However; we are extremely skeptical, since we are experts in our field and know how inefficient this technology currently is. Time will tell, but we are interested to see if this will work or not. I just don't see why people are being so negative about this, since it needs to start somewhere.
Obviously, this is not green yet. Why even bring that up? This is not something that you are going to buy and install in your home today. I hope the people that make this type of comment have a log cabin and are living off the land in Alaska or at least biking to work...