Submitted by keith on Sun, 2007-06-10 06:54
Wireless energy is not yet mature, but this technology is already making rather promising progress. Reported from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), scientists and researchers have disclosed that they have managed to make a 60-Watt light bulb glow by sending energy to it through wireless means. The breakthrough could possibly lead to a future in which wireless gadgets get its power without having to be plugged in to any power source.
While this concept is not new, its idea has been dismissed as being an inefficient method of transferring energy (Recall Newton's Law of Energy Conservation - Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be converted from one form to another). The reason is because electromagnetic energy generated by the charging source is dissipated in a three-dimensional field, i.e. radiating in all directions. Thus, the receiving device would only tap a small percentage of the total energy transmitted. Furthermore, the efficiency drops in an exponential rate, as the distance between the two devices increases.
The MIT team has experimented on lighting the light bulb, which is placed about 2 metres away from the source. According to the their system, it is roughly 40 to 45 percent efficient, as most of the energy dissipated by the charging device does not make it to the receiving device.
While this is a breakthrough in technology, by sending energy via wireless means, it may perhaps require more research into this area by improving its efficiency by at least two-folds so that it can be on par with old-fashioned batteries.
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