MIT's light bulb moment

Researchers at MIT have made a significant breakthrough in making batteries and power cords a thing of the past through the use of wireless electricity.

A team from MIT’s Department of Physics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN) has been looking for a way to charge battery-powered appliances without having to connect them with leads to a power source.

After a series of experiments, they were able to light a 60W light bulb from a power source 2.13m away without a physical connection to bind the two, achieving what the team has dubbed WiTricity.

The WiTricity was created by using two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency known as coupled resonators to exchange energy. Objects of a different resonant frequency would not interfere with the transfer, resulting in a more efficient energy transfer.

Of the many types of resonances available, the researchers decided to investigate electromagnetic resonators that were joined through their magnetic fields.