Intel brings wireless power closer to the mainstream, Nikola Tesla would be proud

Nikola Tesla, the scientist who was working on wireless power around the turn of the last century, would be proud.

简介--科技总在进步，"无线供电"技术已被英特尔大步推到前台。或许将来，我们再也不会被各种的电源线所羁绊，生活会变得简单轻松。尼古拉·特斯拉--上世纪之初研究无线供电的科学先驱，一定会感到很欣慰。

Intel is mainly known for its microprocessors, but it's another technology that was unveiled at this week's Intel Developer Forum (IDF) that has a lot of people talking: Wireless power.

To some, the idea may sound like pure science fiction, but it is very real. Various groups of scientists around the world have been working on it for years, but the problem has mainly been the efficiency, or rather the inefficiency with which power is transfered over the air. Most of it is lost before it can reach its destination. On Thursday however, Intel showed that it could transmit 60 watts of power over a few feet while maintaining 75 percent efficiency.

"The power pack for you laptop isn't that efficient," Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner told USA Today in an interview.

And that's really the key. While it would be great to power a light bulb wirelessly, as Intel demoed at IDF, the real key is being able to charge our ever-growing array of devices wirelessly. I live in a fairly small apartment and have no less than 4 surge protectors, not so much because I'm afraid of power surges on all my equipment, but more because I need all those outlets for the number of gadgets I have.

The best use of wireless charging will be for wireless devices themselves. It's tiresome to have to remember to plug in my phone, my iPods, my laptops and anything else I routinely use on the go. Imagine if these devices could recharge simply by being in your home. In fact, Rattner says Intel is working on a new laptop that will accept wireless power charges.

Of course, that's a ways off, right now the technology only works over a few feet and that's using very large coils (see the picture above) to send the electricity. Also problematic is the fact that the electromagnetic field made by this technology can interfere with other functionality of devices.

This technology is not dangerous to humans since it use magnetic fields to transmit energy and not electric fields. Magnetic fields can pass through the human body without harming anything.

MIT researchers made headlines last year with their "WiTricity" (Wireless Electricity) test that also lit a light bulb from several feet away, but at a much worse efficiency than the Intel test. Now those same scientists are said to have jacked up the efficiency to a pretty incredible 90 percent, meaning they've doubled efficiency in a year's time. If true, it's exciting to think about where this tech will be in another year.

Startups such as Powercast, WildCharge and Powerbeam are working on the technology as well.

英特尔推进"无线供电"，告慰尼古拉•特斯拉!

英特尔以其微处理器著称，不过在本周英特尔开发者论坛（IDF）上推出了另一项引来热烈讨论的技术：无线供电。

对一些人来说，无线供电听起来象纯科幻小说，但它非常真实。多年来世界各地的各色科学家小组一直致力于无线供电研究，效率一直是主要的问题，更确切的说是电力在空气中传输的低效率问题，绝大部分电力在到达目的地之前就损失了。然而在周四，英特尔展示的无线供电技术可以传输６０瓦动力几英尺远的同时还能保持７５％的效率。

"对于笔记本电脑来说这样的无线供电效率还不够高。"英特尔首席技术官贾斯汀•赖特那在采访中对今日美国说。

这非常关键，在IDF上英特尔演示了无线点亮一只灯泡，那多么伟大，然而真正至关重要的是能够给人类持续增长的一系列设备无线充电。我住在一个相当小的公寓里，使用了不少于四个电涌保护器，倒不是那么担心电涌会影响设备，而是由于需要那些插座供我的很多小电子电器。

无线充电的最佳用途是给无线设备自身充电。必须记得给自己的手机，笔记本电脑和许多日常用的设备充电很是令人心烦。想象一下要是这些设备只需在家里就可以充电...。赖特那说英特尔正在研制一种可以无线充电的新型笔记本电脑。

当然，那还有很长的路，目前的无线供电技术仅限于几英尺并且要用很大的线圈来传送电力。另外的问题是这项技术产生的电磁场会干扰其它的设备。

由于采用磁场而不是电场，所以这项技术不会给人带来危险。磁场可以无害地穿过人体。

由于使用"WiTricity"（无线电力）验证了从几英尺外点亮一只灯泡，麻省理工学院的研究人员去年就上了头条新闻，不过无线传输效率远低于英特尔的。现在，还是麻省的那几个科学家说已经将传输效率提高到了令人难以置信的９０％，这意味着一年时间里他们将传输效率翻了个倍。果真如此的话，想象再过一年这个技术的应用该是多么令人兴奋啊。