Wireless power is here...almost

Wireless power is one of the greatest teases I've ever known. It's been talked around and hashed over and over again for years, but it seems that it may finally come to fruition. The concept is simple, if we can use RF (radio frequency) waves for nearly all of our gadgets today, why not also transfer power without the cord?

I for one hate having to keep up with all of the power cords around the house. My cell phone, my wife's, her Blackberry, my Sansa; they all have a proprietary power cord to charge them. Even my Harmony remote has to be docked, just like my wireless mouse for my PC, since they rely on rechargeable batteries. In order for wireless power to work for all devices, they will have to adhere to a standardized protocol, not much different than the AA's and AAA's we're used to today. However, it could require replacing some components in your current devices, and most likely some couldn't even be upgraded. But to the individual interested in such a cutting-edge tech, replacing gadgets like remotes and cell phones is a common occurrence.

The science is simple on the surface. Sending out mass amounts of "wireless power" could be very dangerous, as with all RF, it would be dispersed, and not sent in a singular direction. The idea would be to add another variable, such as resonance (as found by MIT researchers), that could control how the initial radio waves were sent. In this example, a transmitter and receiver would operate on the same frequency and resonance, so that they would only "communicate" with each other. When the signal is reached by the receiving unit, it actually transfers the electromagnetic charge from one coil to the other, since they are both on the same frequency and resonance. A perfect example given in the How Stuff Works article is of two trumpets, and how one trumpet blown can make another resonate, once it hits the right tone.

There are several companies working to deliver this new tech to the masses, with Powercast being the vendor seemingly on the edge of making all of this a reality.