OHHH! I wonder what kind ineffecieancy over wires is experienced with this. I think earlier on he said something like 50%, but that was for the earlier stuff...wonder if the new stuff is better.

Neat-o, but really, this is Segway territory.

Didn't realize plugging a WIRE into a WALL took so much EFFORT that the electro-infrastructure of earth must be reinvented.

Well, its not all about effort persay. Forgetting is just as crappy. Forgetting to plug in the car resulting in not being able to drive it would be a major bummer. Plus, the engine of most cool tech is laziness!

The palm pre already has a wireless battery charger. Its keen, I think its based on heat transfer though. not sure.

Its not about effort, its about getting rid of wires. Also about getting rid of batteries which genuinely do cause quite a mess and problem. It wouldn't necessarily call for a complete revamping of the electro-infrastructure of the earth either. As per the demonstration you would still need to plug *something* in (at least for now) and then all your devices that you actually use you no longer have to worry about keeping charged all the time as well as no longer having to worry about (power) cables all over the place.

All in all an incredible tech. with quite a number of applications. I could definitely see future homes being built with one of those WiTricity transformers built into its own designated space in the house somewhere. Wouldn't even need to be in the open, just stick it in the wall or floor with a section of wall/floor over it you can remove if something breaks. *That* would be the main concern of course, is making sure it's just as reliable over the long term use as current power availability.

Oh and considering its a magnetic field, suppose its a good thing CRT's are going the way o' the dodo, no?

My main concern would be power usage of idle electronics. As far as i understood, this technology functions by constantly emitting a high-energy electromagnetic frequency which nearby electronics just hook into.

However, this seems like a one-way exchange, with the electronics being able to react and absorb the frequency, but the frequency emitter would not recieve any feedback about whether the frequency is actually being used. This essentially makes it emit a constant high-energy electromagnentic field, emitting WiTricity and consuming electricity even though no electronics are recieving the signal.

This seems rather wasteful. I'm sure they are considering solutions to this, but I was rather disappointed that he didn't adress such an obvious problem.

Well, it seems that the waveform of the magnetic field alters when it achieves its harmonic...ness. Perhaps it could just turn on and off like every so often and check to see if it gets a harmonic signaling of some sort. Some kind of cycling that happens very very quickly and doesn't use very much power. As it is, electronics that are plugged in do draw small amounts of current even though they aren't actually using any...this could be MORE efficient in that respect. Though the overall effectiveness is what I want to know about.

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