There's an intriguing (but possibly rather misleading) article on the BBC's site about the airborne transmission of power. It talks about a technology - electromagnetic resonance - that might eventually do away with many of the cables and chargers that seem to rules our lives.
The piece, titled Physics promises wireless power, mentions research being carried out at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and quotes one of the techies - Assistant Professor Marin Soljacic - as saying,
There are so many
autonomous devices
such as cell phones and laptops that have emerged in the last few
years. We started thinking, 'it would be really convenient if
you
didn't have to recharge these things'. And because we're
physicists we asked, 'what kind of physical phenomenon can we use to do
this wireless energy transfer?'.
Trouble is, from what the Beeb reports, it looks to us like the researchers at MIT might have missed the fact that electromagnetic resonance has long been in everyday use. So, if they've not done their homework properly, they might be wasting their time repeating research that's already documented and patented.
We don't pretend in any way to be expert in electromagnetic resonance but do happen to know that the technology has long been a key feature of Wacom's product line. The graphics-tablet specialist uses it to power (and communicate with) the pens and mice that it supplies with its art pads. These work wonderfully well in our experience and, because of the technology used, the pens and mice need no batteries, charging or cables.
We tend to think that there must be other products that use electromagnetic resonance and about which the MIT researchers should know. But are there? Tell us in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum.
