No more power cables!

[Camy]

Say goodbye to the tangle of cables and the wall socket and hello to powering up your electronic gizmos wirelessly.

This picture of a world without wires is one long dreamed of and came a step closer following significant progress made by Intel.

It said it has increased the efficiency of a technique for wirelessly powering consumer gadgets and computers.

"The notion of disappearing energy sources is a powerful one," Justin Rattner, Intel technology boss, told the BBC.

"Wouldn't it be fantastic if we didn't think about where the power was coming from and the power was everywhere?" he said. "No cords, no batteries anymore."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7575618.stm

This is something I've dreamt of for yonks. No more plug boards, wall warts (power adaptors), or mains leads to trip over. Sweet Lord let it be! Soon!

[Cole Parker]

They say the electromagnetic forcefield wouldn't affect humans.

What about ones with pacemakers?

C

[Tanuki Racoon]

They say the electromagnetic forcefield wouldn't affect humans.

What about ones with pacemakers?

Ah, the Cyborgs?

[Trab]

Let me get this right; they are recommending that children not be allowed to use cell phones since the electromagnetic field damages their brains, but a nice power transmitter unit, thousands of times as strong, is going to be just fine. In the meantime, we are having protest after protest about high tension overhead power lines and increased incidences of cancer for those living near them, and they say these transmitters will be harmless. There are satellites beaming high energy pulses at the earth that go a long way into the ground in order to discover new mineral fields, and there is increasing pressure to have them cease their transmissions, but these deliberately designed units to transmit next to you in your house are 'safe'. These technology abusers make me ill, and not only with angst.

[DesDownunder]

I'm gonna find me a nice cave where I can glow in the dark without worrying about radiating anything but peace and love.

Trouble is none of the caves I have looked at so far, have broadband.

[JamesSavik]

what's a little hard radiation between mutants?

[The Pecman]

Hey, I think Nickolai Tesla invented this idea over a hundred years ago. There's been an urban legend for years that the Tunguska Blast of 1908 happened because Tesla accidentally sent millions of volts of electricity across the world, blowing up his laboratory and destroying a forest of 80 million trees in Siberia.

This whole thing sounds dangerous to me. I think I'd rather have an unlicensed nuclear accelerator in my backyard instead of transmitting electricity across the room.

[Res Ipsa Loquitur]

Deleted

[The Pecman]

I know you're being sarcastic, but seriously, we're surrounded by more kinds of transmissions and radiation than ever before in human history. Cellphones, remote controls, Wi-Fi, video monitors, and god knows what else... it can't be doing us much good. Transmitting electricity wirelessly ain't gonna work if there's anything between the transmitter and receiver.

Hell, we have a hard time just transmitting high quality audio wirelessly, and audio is tinkertoys. I have many, many thousands of dollars in gear to do this for recording sound, and you have no idea how hard this is to do. If wireless audio is like a skateboard, wireless electricity is like a rocket. Ridiculously hard to do, bordering on impossible.

[Richard Norway]

Look guys,

I think you're going off the deep end here. This is all speculation. Our fears of the unknown seemed to have brought us to "hate what we don't know." Does this sound familiar??? We're all acting like that sterotype jock in high school.

I want to give it a chance, because the benefits are enormous. But...I too am leary of what is told in the media.. Let's just find out what this is all about first, and then come to conclusions. I'm no expert, and i want to hear what they have to say...not cossip.

Richard

[DesDownunder]

Yes well, I agree with Richard that cossip or gossip is not a good basis for scientific investigation.

Being wary of the affect of the science would seem prudent, however.

The Pecman is right about the difficulty in just getting the high quality audio to transmit wirelessly.

I would add that in my experience the radiation of such transmissions is far more dangerous to our bodies than being subjected to life's desirable emissions. But perhaps the Borg would disagree.

[Camy]

Syrup of Figs works well for cossip.

[TalonRider]

I think there would be a lot of people who wouldn't be able to go near that system. I for one wouldn't be able to being a diabetic. I'm using an infusion pump and it can't go near strong magnets.

[DesDownunder]

No! I am not just pleased to see you. I am standing too close to the electro magnetic transmitter and it is affecting my implant.