Intel said last summer that it has been working on a technology known as a Wireless Resonant Energy Link – devices that can transmit energy through the air because they're tuned to the same frequency.
Back then, Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner demonstrated how he could light a 60-watt light bulb that wasn't connected to any wires – only a large, hoop-like structure that was tuned to the same frequency as a slightly larger one, standing a few feet away.
On Thursday at its Research@Intel day in Mountain View, Calif., Intel's research scientists demonstrated the next step in its wireless energy research – multiplexing sound data along with the power being transmitted.
Instead of a light bulb, Intel had a speaker hooked up in the middle of the receiving hoop. The music coming out of the speaker was carried along with the power driving it from the transmit resonator a few feet away.
Eventually, Intel would like to see the technology developed to power cell phones, laptops and other mobile devices without the need for power cords. The science behind it comes from research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The technology isn't anywhere close to commercialization yet – Intel research scientist Emily Cooper said that's still five to seven years out.
But Intel will release an "exciting" new paper on the technology, describing "some of the details that enable efficiency over long range," in the coming months, she said. Right now the range of the system is about 1 to 2 meters, she said.
While that range is limited, Intel is considering ways it could be used in "room or cubicle" settings, she said. The power transfer itself is about 90 percent efficient, she added.
It's a bit like other research Intel is doing into "scavenging" energy that is abundant in the form of radio waves anywhere humans like to listen to the radio or make cell phone calls (see Intel's Power Play: Charging Gizmos in the Air).
Such "energy harvesting" technologies are of particular interest to those that make sensors for various hard-to-reach environments, since switching out batteries for those devices can be cost-prohibitive.
Sources of free energy can include radio waves, heat, vibrations and the pressure of a fingertip on a light switch, among others (see Finger-Powered, Solar-Sending Light Switches and Tiny Batteries Get Better).
