News, Wireless recharging one step closer to reality. (power, electric, laptop)

[JD59]

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Imagine juicing up your laptop computer or cell phone without plugging it into an electrical socket.

That's a luxury that could be provided by wireless power transmission, a concept that has been bandied about for decades but is creeping closer to becoming viable.

Wireless recharging one step closer to reality - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/22/wireless.power.ap/index.html - broken link)

[rcarrillo]

Decades??? Tesla had this idea long ago. If he had lived longer or been taken more seriously we might have a very different world today. I'm just happy this is being developed now, would be nice if we could replace all our different chargers for 1 wireless unit at home.

[gallon]

Wireless charging. Not a new thing, it's really a fundamental in physical electronics. It works by inductive coupling. The closer the source coil to the receiving coil, the more efficient it becomes. An air core transformer does the exact same thing. The basic idea of inductive coupling goes all the way back to Michael Faraday in the 1830s.