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Not the same technology as Tesla but the same concept. The question is whether or not it is safe.

We would have been there decades ago if it wasn't for that douchebag Edison. Tesla ftw.

Indeed, this is a "powerful concept".Magnetic resonance is a promising means of electricity transfer.

Sorry all,
Copper is a promising means of energy transfer is a boodogle. Lets take an already inefficient system and make it less efficient. No way not on my watch. One of the biggest pollution problems we have today is inefficient electricity distribution, more than half of what is generated is lost by the time you plug into the wall. In its most perfect form this will be 100 times less efficient than that because unless the energy is directed it is lost. Good for convenience bad for the planet.

why do i feel the sudden urge to wrap my testicles in lead when i read this story?

Waste of energy. Give me a perc and I'll plug your damn phone in for you. Nkay. (percs please))::

Tesla wirelessly supplied electricity to light his entire lab in 1890. Then he started work on the Wardenclyffe transmitter that woud have supplied the entire world with wireless energy. Problem was no way to tally the charge for each "customer" so the whole thing was put on the skids. This is OLD OLD news, like 100 yrs old...

interesting idea. I wouldnt use it till its proven to work and be safe though. my balls are the only ones i have

Sounds like fun but you still have to remember to leave it in 'the Zone' at night.

It is until my neighbor moves.

I'm a history major who went to a school with a large engineering program. I remember telling several EE students about 3-4 years ago about how wireless power was not only possible, but likely inevitable. Needless to say, they laughed at the silly history major and his "fake major" and dismissed my talk about Tesla's wireless power experiments as "silly". I didn't claim to understand every facet of the concept but more than enough to see that t was theoretically possible. I think I need to send a few e-mails out on account of smugness being proved wrong.

"Now, Soljačić and his team have successfully demonstrated the use of magnetic resonance coupling to power a 60 watt light bulb from a distance of roughly two meters - and through a thin wall."

Video or it didn't happen.

There are quite a few ideas floating around for wireless power transfer. This being the more innovative one. But I have seen wireless charged cell phones and laptops, so we're getting close.
Now, how to make it so my neighbors don't live off my power bill.

I have studied the physics and, if allowed to happen, this will cause my penis to fall off like a lizard tail

***** amazing the technology that we have today and will have in the future, I often ponder what will we have in the future, is it even possible to have things better than what we have now, or just more efficient. Just the thought that some guy was bothered by his device that was already wireless and let him talk to anyone in the world from just about anywhere in the world, it wanting to be charged by plugging into a socket that is most likely readily available in almost area of his central heated and cooled home is just astounding.
The lengths this person has gone through in order to convenience himself and others is amazing. To think what the telegraph relied upon or even written letters simply a hundred years ago, I can't even fathom where it will be in fifty years.

Everything is closer than we think. Thanks, Goodnight.

Interesting reading the comments. A few actually know EM theory, and know that there's nothing new here, at all. Comments about Tesla further establish that some folks really know just about nothing about AC. Technical rebuttals to all of the misunderstandings would take pages.

I have to say, I love the thought of the technology. Professor Soljacic even taught me quantum physics. Having said that, I don't think we can justify a 20-40% loss in energy efficiency until we've established energy independence and especially alternative sources of energy. Witricity is a great concept, but we have more to accomplish before it can be viably implemented at effective costs.

If Nikola Tesla had his way, we'd had have a much better world than Thomas Edison could have ever provided.

Damn Soviet Russia :(

it is very inefficient. why waste power just because you are too lazy to plug something in.

this is awesome. I can already see it. Power hotspots all over the city where you pay with your credit card to charge anything you want. The same way we have people hacking into others wifi, we would have people hacking into other people's power hotspots.

Wireless power has been around for years: they call it "lightning"

Wireless power is already being implemented all over the place. It's called RFID. You know those security tags they put on things at department stores? If you try to leave the store before the tag has been deactivated, you'll set off the alarm. Those tags are wirelessly powered by a network of scanners near the store's exit by an EM field emitted by the scanner, through a process called "inductive coupling". The problem with this technology is that it's inefficient and it's downright dangerous to power anything beyond the milliwatt range.

I can't see what's wrong with just rememering to plug your phone in at night.

Nikola Tesla . . . . ac power wirelessly FREE to the masses. . . the problem was free isn't a word the big cats (and WASPS) like and thats why they ruined his life and made him look like a crazy

This is so old. Why is this near the top? The article itself is not very informative. Since this has no new information on Witricity, buried.

Think of all the things we can do...

I can move a small fridge around everywhere... including into the bathroom! *mind boggle*

I'm not going to pretend to understand this, but it sounds cool.

Can one of the people that aren't physics challenged like myself explain why we can't have like, an electric hub in our homes, like a router, and all the electronics in the house run off of it? In this day and age it just feels kind of primitive to have life revolve around outlets and extension cords.

this would be great for our datacenter

It's as close as your nearest Substation. There's enough inductive energy there to light up a florescent tube.

People have been stealing power by burying large copper coils under high current transmission lines for a while now. You will get caught these days if you try this because the power companies can detect this by measuring the power factor. The coil acts like a large inductor which can be compared to a power transformer. Transformers work by mutual inductance.

....because plugging things in is such a hard thing to do?

This MIT professor should do something more useful.

Automatic watches have been "self-winding" for years... I haven't wound my watch or replaced its battery in 10 years... then there are those solar watches as well... I think the whole concept of actively "charging" a device is the wrong way to look at it... why can't my phone just charge itself while I'm carrying it around all day? I'm constantly introducing energy (walking around with it, pushing buttons, flipping it open and closed).

Well sticking with batteries and solar power for now then.

Dugg...Cause it's cool...But it's REALLY OLD too...The idea of Magnetic Resonance Coupling is about 100 years old.
Tesla understood it better than most people now...pity he's dead and all...

No.

This is the same technology used to charge my (and most) electric toothbrush. I decided to look into it when I noticed the charger for mine had no metal contacts, yet somehow it was charging the toothbrush.

Isn't this how WACOM tablets work?

Very cool if this technology can work with no adverse side affects to the body. Until then, give me my plug and I'm good.