Adaptation of wireless electricity shocks scientific community

Brooke Thingvold

That signature beeping noise that tells you that your device needs to be charged have become part of our daily lives in the 21st century. This noise has also created the need for change. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor woke up to his wife’s phone beeping and, as he looked around the kitchen, he saw many outlets, but none that could charge the phone in the center of the room. This brought him to come up with the idea of wireless electricity.

This ingenious idea has become a reality through the company WiTricity. It is led by a group of physicists from MIT. The company was founded in 2007 to commercialize the original findings at MIT.

WiTricity’s website said, “A team of physicists, led by Professor Marin Soljačić, developed the theoretical basis for this novel method for wireless electric power transfer in 2005, and validated their theories experimentally in 2007.”

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Graphic by Dan Strand

Wireless power is created using electrical fields, and conductors. There is a machine that contains the conductor, which vibrates at a very high frequency. These frequencies are specific to the machine. The electricity can be used to charge and power virtually any devise.

WiTricity’s website said, “The magnetic fields of two properly designed devices with closely matched resonant frequencies can couple into a single continuous magnetic field. Prof. Soljačić’s team showed how to use this phenomenon to enable the transfer of power from one device to the other at high efficiency and over a distance range that is useful for real-world applications.”

Typical demonstrations show a light bulb being light from a power source over two meters away and a T.V. being powered without any cords. As the technology continues to be changed and improved, the  magnetic fields can power even more.

The benefit that sets the magnetic fields apart is no cords are needed. That is very intriguing as cords often get tangled and cannot always reach were you want it to. Another benefit is that the power could help in the medical field by charging devices like pacemakers in a more sterile way and lessen the chance of infection.

Medical Devise and Diagnostic Industry’s website stated, “The technology has the potential to enable a new generation of medical implants and could streamline the charging and sterilization process for many handheld, portable and cart-based medical devices and instruments.”

The ultimate goal is to have everyone using wireless power, as it is completely safe and just as green as solar electricity.

MIT’s website states, “Imagine a future in which wireless power transfer is feasible: cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers and other portable electronics capable of charging themselves without ever being plugged in, freeing us from that final, ubiquitous power wire. Some of these devices might not even need their bulky batteries to operate.”

As new Technologies are invented, the world continues to change in favor.