Wireless Power Breakthrough Lights Up Future

Jun 09, 07:24 AM

Current Headlines: BOSTON | Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly - from a device 7 feet away - potentially heralding a future in which cell phones and other gadgets get juice without having to be plugged in.

The breakthrough, disclosed Thursday in Science Express , the online publication of the journal Science , is being called "WiTricity " by the scientists.

"It was quite exciting," said MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic , who figured out how to use specially tuned waves for the exchange of power last fall.

The process is "very reproducible," he added. "We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want."

The development raises the prospect that we might eliminate some of the clutter of cables in our ever-more-electronic world.

However, the technology has a ways to go before it becomes practical.

The MIT system is about 40 to 45 percent efficient - meaning that most of the energy from the charging device doesn't make it to the light bulb. Soljacic believes his system needs to get twice as efficient to be on par with charging the chemical batteries in portable gadgets.

Also, the copper coils that transmit the power are about 2 feet wide for now - too big to be feasible for, say, laptops. And the 7- foot range of this wireless handoff could be increased - presumably so that one charging device could automatically power all the gadgets in a room.

Soljacic believes all those improvements are within reach.

The next step is to fire up more than just light bulbs - perhaps a robotic vacuum or a laptop.

trapping

ringtones lure hungry leopards

AHMEDABAD, India | Those ubiquitous ringtones have reached the forests of western India, where leopards are answering their call.

So far, six leopards that have strayed too close to villages have been lured into traps by ringtones playing the calls of roosters, goats and cows, said H.S. Singh , chief conservation research officer in the state of Gujarat .

"Now, instead of using live bait, sounds of animals have been downloaded as ringtones on mobiles, which are attached to speakers kept behind cages and then played at regular intervals," Singh said , adding that the trick only worked at night.

All the leopards were later released unharmed in forests away from the villages, Singh said.

- The Associated Press

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