Wireless breakthrough delivers electrical energy without power cord | Chicago Tribune

Wireless breakthrough delivers electrical energy without power cord | Chicago Tribune

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In a perfect world, there'd be no wires. They clutter the view, get tangled behind desks and limit how far networks can reach. That's why the telegraph gave way to the radio. Cell phones unstrung telecommunications. Wi-Fi liberated computer data. Now the last knotty wire that seemed destined to remain, the power cord, could be on its way out. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers announced last week that they had made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly, potentially previewing a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.

This is truly amazing. The whole "noise cancellation" principle blows my mind and makes me wonder how it will affect fundamental mathematics. But now that MIT is having success with "re-instating" the canceled noise, I am truly amazed. Sending power through the air is something I've thought about for years. I like to think of it as encryption. The power source encrypts the amperage so it is undetectable and hopefully harmless. Then it sends it through the air and and a receiver collects it and then decrypts it so it can be used. They are 40 to 45% efficient according to the article. What happens to the 55 to 60% of power that is not used? I hope that when this is eventually implemented we don't have to worry about our livers being cooked accidentally!