Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Make the way for WiTricity

The story is not very new, but very interesting that it deserves a post.
I was always wondering if this idea can be feasibly utilized to totally free us from wires~...
A research team from MIT makes one step forward.
Will we see products in the near future stamped with a WiTricity logo? ^^

The story available in full at MIT news website

Dropping the technical details, it says that an MIT team experimentally demonstrated wireless power transfer, potentially useful for powering laptops, cell phones without cords.


Wireless power transfer over two-meter distance, from the coil on the left to the coil on the right, where it powers a 60W light bulb. Members of the team that performed the experiment are obstructing the direct line of sight between the coils

They were able to wireless-ly light a 60W light bulb from a power source more than two meters away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance.
The MIT team refers to its concept as "WiTricity" (as in wireless electricity)

The story summary stops here, the following is a K chan blabla. You might get bored =p

It is said that the idea itself exists since a long time, but nobody tried to do actual work on it because there was no demand for such a system.

Why?
When you think about it, for example 10 years ago or older, mobile devices weren't widely used as they are now; so normally the devices were stationary and the power cord we all know would have done just fine.

But now, with the advances in mobile devices, I think it would be very nice if your mobile phone or laptop will recharge it self automatically without needing you to connect the power cord each time the battery goes down.

Or if the technology evolves more, we will no longer have the concept of a BATTERY ^^ ..this will really have its positives.
It's known that the power unit including the battery takes a great part of the size and weight of any mobile device.

If you want to try, remove the battery out of your laptop and see the difference in weight.

If we can get rid of batteries, the design of more compact mobile devices can become easier.
....unless this WiTricity technology would require us to integrate bigger power units!
Another concern that might pop up to the mind is the health impact of such technology.
And I think something else should be investigated. That is the impact of this wireless power transfer on the wireless transfer of data. In other words the interference that it might cause on data channels.

....Ooops....I'm so much into this now aren't I ??
Was I telling people from MIT what they should do?? wake up!wake up!^^;

To tell the truth, I am interested in the wireless technology, and I'm hoping to contribute to it's development some day....That's why I couldn't help but post about this, hope it finds some fans^^;
I just hope that this wont turn into a technical blog! =D



8 comments:

Saemon 左衛門 said...

Interesting.. of-course many questions come up to mind especially about health.

Another interesting thing I once heard about: an atom or molecule of some material was transfered from one end of a wire to another successfully. It's a tiny step in comparison, but...

Star Trek, anyone?

momiji said...

electricity... WiTricity... WiFi.. Wireless... now it makes sense!^^
very nice and interesting! actually we need one in the library, usually i can't find a place to recharge my pc.

i wonder if we can transfer from one country to another wirelessly someday! we can call it WiTravel!! ^^ it will be tirelessly!
we can ask doraemon for that:D

Amani AbuQdais أماني أبوقديس said...

Saemon san,
That's very interesting for me actually.
I'm not a big fan of star Trek, but these almost dream-like things interest me...
Look at this :
Given a simple uniform object :
1)Scan it to save it's physical structure information
2)Send the data to the destination
3)Need a device to "rip" the object atom by atom! (lol here is a problem)
4)Send atoms (the way you mentioned)
5)Reconstruct the object according to the structure information (another problem here)

..see? nothing is impossible =p ww

Momiji san,
LOL I like the WiTravel thing! But if the way of this technology would work the way I imagined up there, I sure don't want to try it! =D

momiji said...

WoW! nice way ! but, me either i don't want to try :)
about WiTricity, i found another use of it; we can supply Gaza strip with electricity from jordan! :D although we will need a mountain-like Inductors in both sides^^

Amani AbuQdais أماني أبوقديس said...

LOL given the current technology you have to divide the distance between here and there by 2 meters..and you have to place an inductor one on each 2 meters! :D

YzN said...

WoW..Thank you K-chan!

In fact in the previous semester our electromagnetics prof mentioned something about the ability to transfer electricity wireless-ly using the same concept of transmitting Data .. now it's something real :D

I wont mind trying the Witravel "when it comes to reality" in any case it will remain better and than Orooba buses :P

4.00.00 pm in C square in JUST
4.00.15 pm on the table eating lunch in Amman

It's worth the risk !

Amani AbuQdais أماني أبوقديس said...

Even with 15 seconds from C square to Amman, still not worth the risk for me :D

naagamallu.b_tech(4'th) said...

I have a doubt , what will happen when a person there between magnetic waves. today we are facing several problems from waves near the cell phone towers.

I requesting all the viewers to give solution for this problem.bye