The Nevada Lightning Laboratory has experimented with Nicola Tesla’s methods of wireless power transmission to push 800 Watts over 5 meters, besting MITs mark of 60W over 2 meters last year.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardware/08/12/10/181229.shtml
It bothers me that the general public sees this as a competing technology with eCoupled, which is what I work on on a daily basis. While I find this interesting, I don’t see it as a competing technology.
If my understanding is correct, they’re using resonant coils that measure feet in diameter to transfer a specific amount of power to a well known load, that’s all fine and good, but it’s not going to power your laptop on your coffee table. Among other reasons, because there are metal parts in your laptop.
Metal sheets do an amazing job of absorbing RF magnetic fields – induction ranges are one of the most efficient ways to boil water. Until you can direct and contain a magnetic field to within a few inch target, this is not going to be a viable solution to wireless power. Add to that the need to detect when something metal, or someone’s head moves between your transmitter and receiver, and you have all kinds of technical hurdles to work out.
