An MIT professor presented an interesting paper at an American Institute of Physics forum this week: a description of a method to wirelessly transmit power to mobile devices. Unlike existing approaches that use inductive coupling (and normally require devices to be quite close together), this approach makes use of resonance and devices can be several metres apart.
More details are available in this MIT news release, and the paper describing the theory involved is available here.
US645,576 -- Prior art?
ReplyDeleteWow - a Tesla patent! I almost couldn't find it; the USPTO only has images of the original available online.
ReplyDeleteA quick read of Tesla's patent indicates that he claims a method of transmitting energy "through the earth and air strata", implying a circuit that requires both. The new method referenced in this posting doesn't require an earth path in the circuit - it makes use of resonance to more efficiently couple two circuits.
It could be that Tesla's patent plus one or two others would render this idea "obvious", though...