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135 Comments
- nosecohn, on 11/15/2008, -2/+205Cool, but didn't Tesla do this 100 years ago?
- quantumd, on 11/15/2008, -2/+106"Magnetic fields, used by Intel’s WREL technology do not affect the human body (at least as far as we currently know)"
Headlines 20years from now..."WREL found to cause cancer!" - Toon, on 11/15/2008, -5/+86 Intel's "Wireless Energy Resonant Link" (WREL).
If they can't even get their acronyms right, I don't know how I feel about this technology. - sroop, on 11/15/2008, -0/+78Great, now I can leech the neighbor's WiFi and power!
- redgiemental, on 11/15/2008, -8/+70Tesla proposed it but never actually did it. We might be further ahead if the US government hadn't confiscated all his research after he died.
Can't wait for this nonetheless. - dsmx, on 11/15/2008, -3/+63Ahh Tesla the father of AC electricity and therefore the world as we know it today.
- dsmx, on 11/15/2008, -1/+57Actually as memory serves he did do it and built a working prototype.
- ArthurSucks, on 11/15/2008, -0/+46Wireless electricity will help save the electric car in the next 10 years.
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -0/+37Everything causes cancer. It's a "fact" that we just have to live with at this point.
- Kossu, on 11/15/2008, -0/+31Intel claims it has improved the efficiency of a method for powering devices wirelessly. Intel's "Wireless Energy Resonant Link" (WREL), technology was demonstrated by transmitting electricity wirelessly to a lamp on stage and lighting a 60 watt bulb, which consumes more power than an average laptop computer.
Wireless power demonstrated (Credit: Intel)
Wireless power demonstrated (Credit: Intel)
This innovation is hoped to be embedded into tables and work surfaces so that as soon as a device is placed on the surface, it will be able to draw power. The technology uses magnetic fields to transmit up to 60 watts of power to a distance of up to two to three feet while only losing around 25% of the power during transmission.
A major concern of any wireless power technology is its possible effects on users. Fortunately during the demonstration the electricity was broadcast without electrocuting anyone who passed between the transmitter and the receiver. Intel’s lead researcher Josh Smith explained that, "The trick with wireless power is not that you can do it; it is that you can do it safely and efficiently." Magnetic fields, used by Intel’s WREL technology do not affect the human body (at least as far as we currently know), unlike electric fields, which might give the user a zap.
The idea of using resonant magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit electricity was demonstrated by a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who refer to their idea as WiTricity. More recently Intel researchers joined forces with MIT to explore the phenomenon known as ”resonant induction,” and the outcome is a technology capable of transmitting power several feet away without wires.
Currently, resonant induction is used to recharge small devices such as electric toothbrushes. Future induction systems based on Intel’s technology will not be restricted to a physical touch between transmitter and receiver and will be able to transmit power over a distance of several feet with efficiency of 50 percent or more.
“In the future, your kitchen counters might do it [supply the power],” Mr. Smith said. “You’d just drop your espresso maker down on them and you would never have to plug it in.”
Wireless power at IDF (Credit: Intel)
Wireless power at IDF (Credit: Intel)
The new technology would initially be used to charge the battery of devices such as laptops, cameras, and cell phones, but Intel hopes to eventually eliminate the use of batteries altogether. Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle said, “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.”
Intel is not the only player in the growing market of wireless power companies. Many companies are currently working on different types of wireless power technologies. Two American start-up companies, WildCharge and WiPower, have already shown simpler wireless power technologies. Intel’s next target is to design a system to recharge a laptop computer without wires.
Intel looks on this next development as a strategic move since attaching a WREL receiving antenna to a laptop would be easier than trying to implement the WREL technology into cell phones or PDAs due to their small size compared to the WREL receiver. If successful, the system would be implemented in airports, offices, and other buildings and deliver power to laptops and other mobile devices. 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.
Smith says that Intel's wireless power system is still in an early stage of development and much research remains before it can be brought to the market. "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."
You can read more about MIT’s first test of the technology mentioned above in “Wireless Power Demonstrated,” where a 60 watt light bulb was able to be lit wirelessly from a distance of about 2 meters in mid 2007. Another wireless power technology is currently being developed by the U.S. company Fulton Innovation under the title “eCoupled Wireless Power.” While waiting for all those wireless power technologies to be developed, you can check out a new, fully operational, green plug universal adapter, which helps you power all your devices from a single adapter.
More information can be obtained on Intel’s website and blog. Several videos show a demonstration of the WREL technology (here, here and here).
Sorry no pics no videos work on the site. - BadGrandma, on 11/15/2008, -2/+32*woosh*
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -1/+24The idiotic submitter got the acronym wrong, not Intel. It's WREL - Wireless Resonant Energy Link
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -0/+21I never even thought of that till you said it now. We should create a working model and patent it quickly! Unless it already is. Tacking wireless electricity onto existing poles would be relatively simple and allowing them to help power cars would make that technology advance at an alarming rate.
How expensive would it be to keep them on all the time though. The towers would need to communicate with eachother and make sure that they only turn on when needed. - TopherT, on 11/15/2008, -4/+24Friends? This guy knows the way our world works. To me electricity is just some arcane branch of magic. Kudos to him as far as i'm concerned.
- groo68, on 11/15/2008, -0/+19unless their pacemaker was powered by it and made to work with it.
- MiDri, on 11/15/2008, -0/+17Problem is, his version would kill any one with a pacemaker within 50 yards...
- benologist, on 11/15/2008, -1/+17Considering Intel technology powers just about everything including cute teddy bears from the future.... I wouldn't be worried if they got an acronym wrong.
- Dested, on 11/15/2008, -0/+16Oh so thats what that lump on my neck is
- afeitarse, on 11/15/2008, -4/+19Dude, don't tarnish Bowie. He has the power. What power? The power of voodoo. Who do?
- inactive, on 11/15/2008, -1/+14just as worried as when nasa mistakes feet for meters.
- BeesKnees21, on 11/15/2008, -0/+13I have lots of friends but they're just as nerdy as me :)
@ kuken: As an Electrical Engineer I can assure you I know 'something' about Electricity and Magnetism.
For those who want to test this theory themselves to see that 'nothing new' is being introduced if you place a number of fluorescent tubes into the ground so that they stand up vertically under EHV (Extremely High Voltage) power lines that are sufficiently low to the ground, you will see that they will be powered by the magnetic field that circles around the lines. There are even some videos on the web if you look hard enough of people doing this. The extra power draw would be virtually undetectable from the local utility. - mk2ja, on 11/15/2008, -1/+13Hey this means my Intel stock might end up making a profit after all! Guess we'll see how it all plays out.
- jwolcott, on 11/15/2008, -7/+19I bet you don't have many friends.
- MeatyMcBeef, on 11/15/2008, -0/+10I think half of male Diggers secretly get off to Tesla and his crazy mustache....and of course all the lady Diggers.
- joshblufs, on 11/15/2008, -0/+10"Intel claims it has improved the efficiency of a method for powering devices wirelessly."
whats the problem? - BeesKnees21, on 11/15/2008, -10/+18Absolutely nothing new here. Ever hear of a transformer (no... not those transformers)? This is such an inefficient method of powering a device as there will be a high reluctance the waves must permeate to reach the device. At least in an iron core transformer you only have to worry about hysteresis and eddy current losses as well as mutual inductance but it's a much better solution.
- chasemassey, on 11/15/2008, -1/+9Now would be a good time to buy some Intel stock. I'm sure Intel is near its 52 week low.
- gn0stik, on 11/15/2008, -0/+7No.... it wasn't microwave based.
Herman Meyl has completely reproduced all of tesla's work. Go check it out, he even sells a demonstration and experimentation kit to science classes in high schools etc. Pretty spendy but awesome nonetheless.
Teslas devices were resonance based. - neutronphaser, on 11/15/2008, -0/+7Intel Wireless Tumor Maker
- Chainheart2, on 11/15/2008, -0/+7So, you're... trying to guilt the Democrats of today by making some distant blame on the democrats of three quarters of a century ago? The FBI is so insulated from politics that it's completely irrelevant, anyways.
You are proof of how pathetic culture wars have made some people. - harrisbradley, on 11/15/2008, -0/+7I've been waiting for this for ever
- InvisibleMan, on 11/15/2008, -0/+7Inverter of the Radio, AC Motor, Electric Transformer, RC Vehicles, Fluorescent Light Bulbs, the Radio, and the all time favorite - the Tesla Coil! Did I mention the Radio, cause that's a big one.
- robdiggity, on 11/15/2008, -0/+7I am less concerned about the acronym than I am the fact that I grew eleven extra testicles while sitting in the front row during the demonstration.
- Murdats, on 11/15/2008, -1/+8telsa did do it, you can use a telsa coil to light up light bulbs at the moment and telsa did this demonstration in his day.
the problem is it emits radiation that over time is harmful, its not something you want to replace all your power lines with. - ORBAT, on 11/16/2008, -0/+6Er, it's WIRELESS, ie. no 3rd rail.
- dignews, on 11/15/2008, -6/+12Yes he did, although I wouldn't like to have walked in front of Tesla's invention. The point of what Intel is doing, is to provide safe wireless power, for use in homes and business's alike.
- JakeW, on 11/15/2008, -0/+6Mirrors don't flip them upside down... they reverse them
- dafragsta, on 11/15/2008, -0/+6What does any of this have to do with free energy?
- inactive, on 11/16/2008, -0/+6Digg does have spell checking, though, so there's no excuse for that.
- reichec, on 11/15/2008, -1/+7Put it near your nads, Im sure this is harmless
- Qumahlin, on 11/15/2008, -1/+6@afeitarse
Please don't ever mention Labyrinth again. I was irreparably scarred by the movie due to David Bowie being in a skin tight outfit that looks as if it was made specifically to accentuate his *****. In fact there are a few scenes where the camera man was either told to focus on it, or was simply gay. - EddieStarr, on 11/15/2008, -0/+5How Semi Exciting
- Mexrocker, on 11/15/2008, -5/+10¿ɹoɹɹıɯ
- metateck, on 11/15/2008, -0/+5http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm6u6J38njY&feature ...
Youtube Video - inactive, on 11/16/2008, -0/+4I there was too I think it brained my screw up.
- mfrancis107, on 11/16/2008, -0/+4Actually if we just stopped consuming toxins as food, our bodies would be able to get rid of any cancer caused by such devices. It is all of those energy drinks, sodas, meat, and artificial food that causes cancer.
We are hypocrites to be concerned about cancer from WREL, when we constantly consume toxic foods. - Pritchard, on 11/16/2008, -0/+4PHP - Hypertext Preprocesser
What now, bitches? - lacreme, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4average desktops mostly consume a lot more than 60 watts, but most laptops do not. My 17" hp only used 85 watts maximum, and my tablet uses 65.
- TheGuruStud, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4Except it's only partial sarcasm. His statement could very well be true.
- noctiferis, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4"will be able to transmit power over a distance of several feet with efficiency of 50 percent or more. "
Cool!! And the other 50% we can waste? Not like we have an energy problem or anything.... and then the question will be "what happens to that energy?" it gets dispersed and because energy does just not disappear it will work as heating too XD -
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