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No more cable wrangles, wireless charging is here at last

A day is not far when you will be able to transfer power to all your gadgets without the help of wires. Sounds interesting? Then read on.

Ever been exasperated at the ugly sight of a tangle of wires on your desktop? Not that you could help it, for you had to ‘stay wired’ in this modern world.

Ever missed a heartbeat when you toddler crawled towards that maze of cables connecting household appliances to the power outlet? Ever had a fall tripping over them?

Then you’d have wished to do away with all those cables and still be connected, as with your cellphones. Day isn’t far when it’s gonna be a reality.

More than a century after inventing wireless communication, man was yet to break the final link with wires. Wireless energy transfer could just help do that.

US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires. The setup, reported in the journal Science, made a 60W light bulb glow from a distance of 2m (7ft) using copper coils and a transmitter. The system exploited "resonance", a phenomenon that causes an object to vibrate when energy of a certain frequency is applied. When two objects have the same resonance they exchange energy strongly without having an effect on other surrounding objects. Measurements showed that the setup could transfer energy with 40% efficiency. The bulb glowed when obstructions such as wood metal, electronic devices were placed between the two coils. “These results are encouraging,” said Professor Soljacic. “The goal now is to shrink the size of these things, go over larger distances and improve the efficiencies.”

Wireless charging would mean the end of charging connectors that break, wear out, or become misaligned. A single charging pad will be able to power all your gadgets so you won't have to match this charger with that gadget. No more replacements too. Meanwhile, researchers at MIT said this week that they have come up with a way to wirelessly supply power that could lead to the development of gadgets that don't require batteries at all.
Looks we are almost there!

[ Via infoworld ] [ Via bbc ]