Wireless Electricity

The notion of wireless electric power has been around far longer than one might think: Nikola Tesla might have perfected the technology a century ago if he had not been poor, unlucky, and kind of crazy. Many today are unaware that, even though it has obviously yet to be deployed en masse, wireless power transfer actually exists.

Wireless device charging has been around for some time, and continues to improve. Companies like Witricity are at work developing electric “hubs” that can power your entire house. Their prototype is called “Prodigy” and is based on research done by physicist Marin Soljacic of MIT. It works by exploiting the fact that certain frequencies of electromagnetic waves facilitate ease of energy transfer, and two objects resonating with such a frequency can easily transfer electricity between them, even at some distance and even if the objects are metal. When perfected (which many see coming within the next decade), it could bring about an end to batteries as we know them.