When most people think of wireless electricity, they think of batteries. Until the current decade, a battery was the only way to use electricity without wires. That has all changed and it began with a MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) invention of WiTricity in 2007. Using electricity without wires, and without batteries, is something I look forward to.

Wireless Electricity

While MIT may have invented "WiTricity", they didn't invent wireless electricity. Wireless electricity has existed in several forms for quite a long time, including radio transmissions. We can thank Nikola Tesla for radio along with the inspiration for WiTricity.

I recently stumbled upon the article, "Dell Delivers Beauty, Substance with Latitude Z; The World’s First Laptop with Wireless Docking, Inductive Charging", and decided to investigate further. Somewhere along the line, I lost the page where I found that Sony had displayed a computer system powered by something similar to what MIT developed.

CNN also ran an article in September, "A cordless future for electricity?", which talked about WiTricity, low-level power, power pads and magnetically coupled resonance. The applications for wireless electricity are interesting to say the least.

Real World Applications

While this may all seem like fantasy or something that will become ubiquitous far into the future, I predict wireless electricity delivered by various means to be in widespread use within five years. The best part about it will be that we will be far less reliant on disposable batteries with our portable devices.

One of the things that hinders the widespread use of electric cars is that they have to be plugged in. Wouldn't it be nice to drive an electric car into your garage and have it automatically recharge without you having to think about it? If you think I'm jumping to conclusions, you need to be aware of the fact that a new wave and new breed of electric cars will soon be flooding the market in places where combustion engines have traditionally been at the forefront of automotive sales, including the US.

There are some safety issues to be dealt with, such as strong magnetic fields, but the safety issues will probably be taken care of before any of this becomes mainstream.

Besides disposable batteries, corded appliances may become a thing of the past. How many appliances do you have sitting on your kitchen counters? I have a microwave oven, a toaster, a blender and an electric can opener sitting on mine right now, with all the wires to go with them snaking their way around those appliances. A kitchen counter without wires is a good thing and safer without them. I've been shocked more than once and I write from experience.

What about all the wires going to desktop computers, along with the assorted peripherals? Perhaps people will be more prone to move them, clean behind them and so on if they don't have to worry about unplugging and re-plugging or tripping over electrical cords. I know it's one reason I rarely move mine.

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