Power Cords May Be on Way Out, MIT Sends Energy Wirelessly, Powers Light Bulb 7 Ft. Away

    By BRIAN BERGSTEIN

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In a perfect world, there'd be no wires. They clutter the view, get tangled behind desks and limit how far networks can reach. That's why the telegraph gave way to the radio. Cell phones unstrung telecommunications. Wi-Fi liberated computer data.

    Now even the last knotty wire that seemed destined to remain - the power cord - could be on its way out.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers announced Thursday they had made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly, potentially previewing a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.

    The breakthrough, disclosed in Science Express, an online publication of the journal Science, is being called "WiTricity" by the scientists.

    The concept of sending power wirelessly isn't new, but its wide- scale use has been dismissed as inefficient because electromagnetic energy generated by the charging device would radiate in all directions.

    Last fall, though, MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic (pronounced soul-ya-CHEECH) explained how to do the power transfer with specially tuned waves.

    The key is to get the charging device and a gadget to resonate at the same frequency - allowing them to efficiently exchange energy.

    The new step described in Science was that the MIT team put the concept into action. The scientists lit a 60-watt bulb that was 7 feet away from the power-generating appliance.

    The development raises the prospect that we might eliminate some of the clutter of cables in our ever-more electronic world.

    Before that can happen, the technology has a ways to go.

    The MIT system is about 40 percent to 45 percent efficient - meaning that most of the energy from the charging device doesn't make it to the light bulb.

    Soljacic believes it needs to become twice as efficient to be on par with the old-fashioned way portable gadgets get their batteries charged.

    (c) 2007 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.