MIT Illuminates 60 Watt Bulb Wirelessly

Science is advancing everyday and the new feather in the cap came from the researchers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) when they made a 60 watt bulb glow by sending energy wirelessly from a device 7 feet away.

The hottest discovery by the MIT researchers was in print on Thursday in Science Express, the online periodical of the journal Science, and is being called "WiTricity" by the scientists.

The concept is not new-flanged, as in the past, some attempts similar to this have been made by many researchers, but the idea was kept at bay due to the argument that electromagnetic energy generated by the charging device would emit in all directions.

However, with the statement of MIT physics Professor Marin Soljacic last winter, who said that he has figured out how to use specially tuned waves, the concept again came into light.

The basic idea followed by the scientists in this breakthrough discovery was that the recharging device and the gadget that needs power to reverberate should be at equivalent frequency, allowing the competent swap of energy.

The truly new step, described in the paper in Science, “was that the MIT team carried the concept out. It was able to light up a 60-watt bulb that had "no physical connection" with the power-generating appliance.”

"It was quite exciting," Soljacic said." The process is very reproducible. We can just go to the lab and do it whenever we want."

On the other side of the coin, the MIT researchers are not fully successful as a large amount of the energy from the charging device doesn't make it to the light bulb.

Even the copper coils that are used to pass on the power are too gigantic in size to be practicable. Also, the 7 foot range of the wireless device could be increased, so as to give power to all the devices in the room.

Soljacic believes that in order to make the discovery come neck and neck with chemical batteries or wires, it needs to be 100% efficient.

He strongly believes that all this is not impossible and within reach, and soon the researchers will snub away the shortcomings attached to their discovery. He said that the next step is to ignite not only the bulbs wirelessly, but a Roomba robotic vacuum or a laptop.

The team also stressed the point that while experimenting, no harm was caused to any living objects, or to the cell phones, electronic equipment and credit cards in the room, although, more sophisticated research is needed.

The new research has paved the way for gadgets to work without being plugged. Wires have always been a source of interferences- They muddle the view, get snarled behind desks and limit how far networks can reach. That's the reason why radio made telegraph extinct, landlines got replaced with cell phones and Wi-Fi set free computer data.

“This technology will move from the lab to the real world. There’s no fundamental problem. It’s going to work,” said Douglas Stone, a theoretical physicist at Yale University, not affiliated with the MIT group.

“I think it’s brilliant. This is something anybody could have thought about for a century,” he added.