Ack:- Vishal Shah
In an experiment revealed last week, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s departments of Physics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies lit a 60-watt light bulb from a power source seven feet away with no physical connection between the power source and the bulb.
The researchers employed two magnetic coils, 20 inches in diameter, designed to resonate together. The team labeled the concept WiTricity, for wireless electricity.
According to the researchers, power levels more than sufficient to run a laptop can be efficiently transferred over room-sized distances even when objects completely obstruct the line-of-sight between the power source and appliance. “As long as the laptop is in a room equipped with a source of such wireless power, it would charge automatically, without having to be plugged in,” one of the researchers, MIT physics professor Peter Fisher, said in a statement. “In fact, it would not even need a battery to operate inside of such a room.”
If [or should it be when] commercialized, the researchers foresee, WiTricity could cut society’s dependence on those heavy and expensive batteries.
Nicola Tesla was working on this during the middle of his career way back in the 1880’s 1890’s. What happened to all his research is a matter of mystery since all his works and papers were supposedly confiscated by the then American government. You’ll find more about his works here.
Personal View: If even half his (and a whole bunch of other scientists’ works) were allowed to be developed, the world would be a full 100 years or so more advanced than it is now. Problem is, human beings are not adequately equipped to adapt to changes in technology at quite the pace it is possible to develop it. So, it’s highly likely that most technology is withheld from the general public, until such time that commercial entities have recovered (with substantial profits) any investments made into more aged technologies (or even the use of polluting natural resources), when any tech is finally released.