I was quite excited when the development of “witricity” was announced – the ability to transmit power without wires. It’s amazing in its simplicity – it doesn’t require carbon nanotubes or rare elements – just electromagnetic fields and a bit of resonance. It works in a similar way to a radio transmitter and receiver – something creates an electromagnetic field with certain properties, and another device detects those fields. A normal transformer – the thing that converts 120 Volts AC into something your laptop can use – even uses a similar principle, but the distance is really small and the field is passed through iron.
Diagram shows how magnetic fields transmit power, even around obstacles (from WiTricity Corportation)
I was re-excited when I read an article in BBC news saying that the WiTricity Corporation has demonstrated a system (ie, something destined for consumers!) at the TED conference. I remember making a guess of how long it would take for the product to hit markets – I don’t remember what the exact timescale was predicted to be, but it certainly looks fairly soon!
I will admit to not having followed the development over the past few years, so I had feared that the WiTricity Corporation was somehow (unfairly?) profiting from the hard work of the MIT physicists who developed it. I am quite happy to see that the management team seems to be made up of the original scientists (as well as a few others) and that there is a Scientific Advisory Board of MIT Professors who worked on the development as well. Additionally, Prof. Soljačić received the MacArthur Fellowship (aka Genius Grant) for the work. So not only did a few physicists create an invention that may revolutionize consumer technology, but they received scientific recognition, and stand to actually receive the financial windfall as well! I think this represents the luckiest few graduate students since Larry Page and Sergey Brin!
