Electricity Now Wireless!

Hate to charge your laptop with a wire? In a year cords might start become obsolete.
This is a prediction of Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricity, a company that is now able to run light bulbs without an electrical cord.

The system works by converting power into a magnetic field, and on a particular frequency, making electricity wireless. "The biggest effect of wireless power is attacking that huge energy wasting that goes on where people buy disposable batteries," Giler says.

Since the 1890's scientists and engineers have been working on the idea of sending electrical currents though the air, but up until now no one has discovered a safe way to do so. Many engineers have come upon successes, but none have been completely reliable. In 2003, a company called Powercast used the low-level power of radio waves to illuminate an LED light 1.5 miles from the power source. The Powercast system doesn't have enough power to charge a laptop, cell phone, or any other large power source.

One of the biggest doubts about the electricity system is health risks. Menno Treffers, chairman of the steering group at the Wireless Power Consortium, a group promoting wireless power as a standard, says there may be health risks involved with the magnetic field system. Giler said the technology would produce magnetic fields that are "about the same density as the earth's magnetic field." Despite the doubts about the system, it would be environmentally friendly considering the some 40 billion disposable batteries made each year. "The biggest barrier to the technology's adoption," Giler said, "is that people just aren't familiar with the idea. "

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/02/wireless.electricity/index.html