Wireless Electricity? Who thought that would be possible? The guys at WiTricity has demonstrated a working prototype of the system which can power wide range of electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops and television sets.

Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford.  Giler said the technology can replace miles of expensive power cables and billions of disposable batteries.

“There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power,” he said.

The system works on “resonance” where two coiled antennas resonate on the same frequency which enables them to exchange energy without effect on surrounding objects.   The system uses two coils which are carefully engineered to resonate on exactly the same frequencies.

So if power is transmitted wirelessly, is it safe?  According to the demo conducted by Giler at the TED Global conference, the system is very much safe.    The system is very much safe because the energy is transferred through magnetic field and humans are non-magnetic in nature.

“Humans and the vast majority of objects around us are non-magnetic in nature,” Professor Soljacic, one of the inventors, said.

1. Magnetic coil (Antenna A) is housed in a box and can be set in wall or ceiling.

2. Antenna A, powered by mains, resonates at a specific frequency.

3. Electromagnetic waves transmitted through the air.

4. Second magnetic coil (Antenna B) fitted in laptop/TV etc resonates at same frequency as first coil and absorbs energy.

5. Energy charges the device.