Cordless Living

Truly wireless electricity is no longer a fantasy of the future. It’s here! And it’s not just for charging your smartphone or your electric car. New developments in resonance technology are making it possible to transfer power efficiently over longer distances using non-radiative, magnetic coupling.

It’s based on technology that’s been under development for several years. As far back as 2007, researchers were achieving wireless transfer of up to 60 watts of power with about 40 percent efficiency over distances of more than 2 meters using highly-resonant wireless power transfer (HR-WPT). Today, wireless electric power can be delivered over room-scale distances with a high level of efficiency.

The implications of being able to go truly cordless extend well beyond the convenience aspect of no longer needing to figure out ways to hide your stereo wires. Eliminating cables would enable devices to be designed in totally new ways, with new functionality, and even change the way in which we interact with them. Replaceable batteries could become a thing of the past, and many systems that depend on electric power (including industrial and medical equipment) would be more reliable as well as more flexible.