could this flux things up

[ajstoneservices]

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Intel on Thursday showed off a wireless electric power system that analysts say could revolutionize modern life by freeing devices from transformers and wall outlets.
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Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link as he spoke at the California firm's annual developers forum in San Francisco.

Electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer.

Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units.

"The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently," Intel researcher Josh Smith said in an online video explaining the breakthrough.

"It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field."

Examples of potential applications include airports, offices or other buildings that could be rigged to supply power to laptops, mobile telephones or other devices toted into them.

The technology could also be built into plugged in computer components, such as monitors, to enable them to broadcast power to devices left on desks or carried into rooms, according to Smith.

"Initially it eliminates chargers and eventually it eliminates batteries all together," analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of Intel's wireless power system.

"That is potentially a world changing event. This is the closest we've had to something being commercially available in this class."

Previous wireless power systems consisted basically of firing lightning bolts from sending to receiving units.

Smith says Intel's wireless power system is still in an early stage of development and much research remains before it can be brought to market.

Rattner spoke of technological transformations he expects by the year 2050.

"You'd like to cut the last cord," Smith said.

"It's great that we have wireless email and wireless internet and stuff like that but at the end of the day it would be nice to have wireless recharge as well."

[Ivan]

Technically, it's very simple and quite feasible. I'm not sure it's so easy to get around the EMC regs with wireless power, though.

Faraday demonstrated this a long time ago (late 1800s?), as a proposed wireless power system.

You can build a transformer into a room or house - coils around the room, and then a receiver coil tuned to the same frequency in the wireless device.

[longstroke]

Is that not the same as the electric toothbrushes that sit on a base to charge but don't connect via conductors?

[Ivan]

pretty much. I suspect the new technology works on the basis of tuning the coils, so that they will work over longer distances, and perhaps also working at very low frequencies

[Colin_A]

I don`t think any type of high strength rf field will do you much good if you are exposed to it for long enough.
The frequency spectrum is pretty full worldwide, so they may have a job finding sufficient bandwidth without causing grief to existing services. There are enough EMC issues already without any more 

[wyleu]

Expect a large number of household objects to get mysteriously hot for no apparent reason. Also the electricity bill is going to be very interesting to analyse.

[longstroke]

I wonder what sort of efficiency is achieved as the frequency could cause resonation in other things as Wyleu mentioned hence wasting energy.

Sounds dangerous, but then thats what people thought about electricity when it was 'discovered'!

[David]

Technically, it's very simple and quite feasible.

It can also be demonstrated fairly easily should one wish to do so. After dark stand under some electricity pylons with a fluorescent tube taken from a light fitting and observe what happens to it.

[Ivan]

Does that actually work? I've seen pictures of the fluorescent sculptures between Bristol and Bath, but the artist that created them said it was possible due to the very low height of the high voltage lines. I've always assumed from that, that it wouldn't work in a normal situation

[welshboy]

My uncle used to farm. One of his fields was underneath an overhead high voltage pylon line.The pylons were 200ft high and I guess the lowest wires were about 120ft. He strip grazed the field( in simple terms that means rolling out a length of wire held up about 3ft by insulated posts with the wire connected to an electric fencer- giving a 12v shock to anything touching the wire). If the stripgrazing wire was parellel to the overhead wires then the stripgrazing wire was live yes live without the electric fencer! Positively dangerous.

[renewablejohn]

Ivan

Yes it does work come to our house for a demonstration. I find the 4ft tubes the easiest to start but dont know why. I have often thought of putting a coil in a shed I have close to the pylon but then chicken out due to not knowing what magnitude of voltage could be generated and then not being able to turn it off. 

[Colin_A]

Its also a good way of checking the radiation angle of a magnetic loop transmitting antenna, a meagre 10 watts of RF will make a flourescent tube glow fairly bright.
A magnetic loop can produce several thousand volts across the capacitor even at very modest power inputs, normally vacuum capacitors are used for anything over 100w

[northern installer]

I think I mentioned this once before;the 400kv lines run 100 yards behind the house,and across our farm land.I was very tempted to try a parallel line at ground level,but decided it was potentially dangerous,and very illegal! One point you have to bear in mind is a possible high voltage surge when the transmission lines are switched on or off;if you are standing directly beneath the lines when they are re energised,you can physically FEEL it !  as an electrical engineer,I have always had a healthy respect for voltages over 500,never mind nearly half a million volts!

[northern installer]

Ivan

Yes it does work come to our house for a demonstration. I find the 4ft tubes the easiest to start but dont know why. I have often thought of putting a coil in a shed I have close to the pylon but then chicken out due to not knowing what magnitude of voltage could be generated and then not being able to turn it off. 

I have this comic mental image of the wire on the live end of the coil thrashing about like an enraged snake,chasing you down the path 

[David]

I have often thought of putting a coil in a shed I have close to the pylon but then chicken out due to not knowing what magnitude of voltage could be generated and then not being able to turn it off.

I have not bothered to work out what voltage might be induced in something parallel to 400kV line. However, it is worth pondering on the figures for an electrified railway. If one of the overhead lines is energised (at 25kV) then an overhead line parallel to it which is isolated but not earthed will have a voltage induced in it which is up to 5kV. Even metal fences/railings on platforms are earthed, partly to prevent people getting electric shocks from them.

These sort of lines contain a controlled form of lightning and are best left well alone.