Wireless Energy Explained - Coming Soon To A Home Like Yours

In the following video, Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity explains to a BBC reporter how within approximately 18 months we may see wireless electricity for our everyday household appliances, cell phones, and electric cars. The idea is that electricity can now be safely passed without wires over large distances and thus we will be able to install transmitters in our homes and offices that will feed receivers in our devices and eliminate the need for direct connections to the source.



Source: BBC News

Microsoft unveils mobile portal

Microsoft has taken the wraps of it's new portal geared towards cellphones and other Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 1.2 enabled devices. For now the portal, aptly named MSN Mobile, is only accessible in the United States but CBC reports that it will be available in other markets within the next 12 months. With the move, Microsoft joins Google, Yahoo!, and Apple in the race to dominate our 3rd screen.

Wireless electical supply

If researchers at MIT have it their way we may, some day soon, be free of the wires that tie our electronic devices to their power supplies. Imagine your cellphone charging on it's own without being required to 'plug in', or your laptop working without a battery or an AC adapter. Scientists have known for centuries of several methods of moving energy around without wires, but these methods are either inefficient or potentially dangerous to human life. The MIT researchers have been able to exploit the fact that two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently (the link above has a great explanation). Apparently the science is based on well-known laws of physics and could have been explored long ago had there been a demand for such requirements. While I am in awe of the thought of such developments, I think I'd like this to stay in the lab until we find out that it is really safe to be walking around in. Maybe these guys can get back together for a picture in a couple of years time... no horns or extra appendages and they'll get the thumbs up!