MIT man says wireless power is coming

Author: Wil Harris
Published: 16th November 2006

Could you be recharging this wirelessly soon?

A researcher at the Michigan Institute of Technology, the foremost tech geek lab in the States, says that wireless recharging of devices could be closer than we think to a reality.

Marin Soljacic, who is working on power induction, says that "a power transmitter would fill the space around it with a non-radiative electromagnetic field," rather than projecting a particular signal to a particular device. The characteristics of induced power are such that transmitting power point-to-point is not possible, but emitting an electromagnetic field around a base is definitely do-able.

This means that rather than having wireless chargers for each device, a common standard 'power emitter' could be placed in each room, and devices within the radius of the emitter would get charged. Any 'spare' power being emitted could be re-absorbed back by the emitter device.

There's some interesting detail over at Tom's Hardware. Do you think we could actually have a future for wireless power, or would it just give us all radiation poisoning? Let us know your thoughts over in the forums.