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The A to Z of wireless
Updated: Everything you need to know from A to Zigbee, and plenty in between...

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Tuesday 11 August 2009

J is for Juice

The holy grail of the modern wireless world is surely the ability to cut the last cord and power devices wirelessly - sometimes referred to as wireless energy transfer.

The concept of wireless power is by no means a new idea: in the late 1800s the inventor Nikola Tesla demonstrated a form of wireless energy transmission powering a lightbulb - the so-called Tesla effect. But despite this early interest, the potential for wireless power has gone untapped, with tech-driven societies relying instead on batteries and plug-in chargers.

However momentum now seems to be building behind the concept: a few years ago scientists at MIT also demonstrated wireless energy transfer powering a lightbulb by using magnetically coupled resonant objects. The technology - dubbed WiTricity - uses copper coils in the transmitters and receivers which, because they are tuned to the same frequency as each other, are able to exchange energy efficiently with minimal energy leakage into the surrounding environment or to non-coupled objects.

A not-for-profit organisation - the Wireless Power Consortium - was established at the back end of last year "to drive convenience in electronics charging" and establish standards, with member companies including Olympus, Philips, Sanyo and Texas Instruments.

Chipmaker Qualcomm is also convinced by the potential of wireless power, recently showing a photograph of a prototype wireless charging tray to power mobiles and any other relevant gadgets placed on it.

Inventor Nikola Tesla (Photo credit: jorel314 via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence)