Intel has developed a wireless power system that supplies energy to devices over the air.
The geek in me flipped over the fact that “wireless power” is actually possible. It was an April Fool’s joke played by Powercast last year that duped even CNN. On April 2nd we all had a good laugh at the fact that we thought it was even possible. Less than 18 months later it’s become a reality.
It’s still early days but the technology certainly seems promising. The system basically uses magnetic fields to transmit energy to a device. A 60 watt bulb was used in Intel’s demonstration and it did light up.
It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective [sic] fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field.
— Josh Smith, Intel researcher
Huh. I guess Mr. Smith is overlooking research that links power lines (and their magnetic fields) to cancer clusters.
With discussions cropping up on “Wifi, Cancer, and Legal Liability” I’d approach a new wireless technology, that could possibly be a bigger hazard, with caution.
WiFi signals now fill the spaces and penetrate the walls of most modern apartment buildings, offices and houses. You’re left without much of a choice in exposing yourself to these wireless fields. If wireless broadband could be a hazard, what more magnetic fields openly sending a device’s power supply through the air. Like always I guess we’ll have to wait for someone to kick the bucket before anybody makes a fuss. Consumer is king my a$$!
The bar is set so low for safety tests — particularly when it comes to testing the effects of long term exposure — that I can’t help but sound like a rigid, old man:
I am sticking by that final cord for at least another decade.
If people don’t fall out by then, I might consider the upgrade.