WiTricity made a splash today, being featured in the LA Times Tech Blog. Is it the end of power cords as we know it?

WiTricity is a Massachusetts company, apparently spun off from a project started at the prestigious MIT university. According to the LAT, the company is claiming that they will have the ability to power practical devices without wires in as soon as eighteen months. The announcement was made at TEDGlobal on Friday.

From the LAT:

The company showed how a transmitting unit, which could be placed in a wall, could power a television set several feet away. The chief executive of the company, Eric Giler, also showed how the system could wirelessly charge a G1 cellphone equipped with an antenna unit so small it could fit inside the phone case.

An iPhone was part of the demonstration, too, but that phone’s innards are so closely packed that the antenna had to be attached to the outside of the case.

Giler said the WiTricity system works on something called resonant magnetic coupling and is safe for humans. And on an environmental note, he said it could not only eliminate power cords but also tons of batteries used yearly to power household devices.

 
Does this mean the end of power cords?
Buzz surrounding the WiTricity product has been swirling for some time amongst the bleeding edge crowd.

On Friendfeed, Paul Buchheit shared an article on the topic, which I re-shared via Twitter.  In response, @AndyAngelos pointed me towards existing similar technology that’s been in use for some time to power wireless Christmas tree lights.

It’s a fascinating concept, and one that’s apparently gathering steam in the consumer electronics world.  The UK Guardian pointed to trends in wirelessness back in January, shortly after CES this year, mentioning WiTricity as well as other services like Powerbeam and the longstanding existing products like wireless headsets, Bluetooth, wireless USB and other similar tech.

One of the keys to augmented reality is battery life and physical connectivity.

There’s a whole world of devices needed to make a wearable computer a reality – an input device, a wearable viewscreen, cameras, audio ins and outs, and any other sorts of add-ons one might want.

As someone who’s tried to put one of these together in the past, it doesn’t take more than a few peripherals before you start looking like a Borg.  Part of that is the still-noticeable size of most computer peripherals, but part of that are the wires hanging off virtually everything – and that’s something that severely limits the marketability of most devices capable of practical augmented reality.

WiTricity and technologies like it could be the key to unlocking a whole new world of applications for computing to the general populace.