MIT professor demos wireless electricity

WiFi and WiMAX, meet "WiTricity". MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic and his team have created a wireless power standard that is reportedly 80 percent as efficient as the wired transmission of electricity. In a demonstration, the team lit a 60 watt light bulb without the use of any wires. WiTricity "uses a copper coil attached to a power outlet to transmit electromagnetic waves at set frequencies. A receiving coil attached to the base of the light bulb, can receive the power for a distance up to seven feet," without posing an interference risk to biological processes or other electrical devices. "[N]ow is a good time to start thinking about commercializing it," Soljacic was quoted as saying, adding that commercial products could be available in only "a few years, if you started working very seriously."

For more on WiTricity:
- see this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)