[Robotgroup] Cool NASA News

[Ed Xavier Gonzalez]

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>* MIT Team Demonstrates Wireless Power Transfer Technology
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>WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER
>A team from MIT has demonstrated wireless power transfer, which 
>would enable cell phones, MP3 players, laptops, and other portable 
>electronics to charge themselves without being plugged in. Some of 
>these devices may not even need their batteries to operate.
>
>The team was able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source 
>seven feet away with no physical connection between the two. The MIT 
>concept is called WiTricity (wireless electricity) and is based on 
>using magnetically coupled resonant objects. Two resonant objects of 
>the same resonant frequency can exchange energy efficiently, while 
>interacting weakly with off-resonant objects.
>This technology is suited to everyday applications because most 
>common materials interact only weakly with magnetic fields, so 
>interactions with extraneous environmental objects are suppressed.
>
>According to MIT Professor John Joannopoulos, the reason no one 
>previously had thought of the idea -- which is based on well-known 
>laws of physics -- is because "there was no great demand for such a 
>system" in the past. "Over the past several years, portable 
>electronic devices such as laptops, cell phones, iPods, and even 
>household robots have become widespread, all of which require
>batteries that need to be recharged often."
>
>For more information visit: http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20070618A2

<The right to Free Speech does not diminish the value of remaining silent>

Ed Xavier Gonzalez
Oak Hill Laser
ohlaser at swbell.net
(512) 288-5243