Eric Giler demos wireless electricity

87,639 views ・ 2009-08-31

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
Early visions of wireless power
0
12160
4000
00:16
actually were thought of by Nikola Tesla
1
16160
3000
00:19
basically about 100 years ago.
2
19160
2000
00:21
The thought that
3
21160
2000
00:23
you wouldn't want to transfer electric power wirelessly,
4
23160
3000
00:26
no one ever thought of that.
5
26160
2000
00:28
They thought, "Who would use it if you didn't?"
6
28160
2000
00:30
And so, in fact, he actually set about
7
30160
3000
00:33
doing a variety of things.
8
33160
2000
00:35
Built the Tesla coil. This tower was built
9
35160
2000
00:37
on Long Island back at the beginning of the 1900s.
10
37160
4000
00:41
And the idea was, it was supposed to be able to transfer power
11
41160
2000
00:43
anywhere on Earth.
12
43160
2000
00:45
We'll never know if this stuff worked. Actually, I think the
13
45160
2000
00:47
Federal Bureau of Investigation
14
47160
2000
00:49
took it down for security purposes,
15
49160
2000
00:51
sometime in the early 1900s.
16
51160
3000
00:54
But the one thing that did come out of electricity
17
54160
2000
00:56
is that we love this stuff so much.
18
56160
2000
00:58
I mean, think about how much we love this.
19
58160
2000
01:00
If you just walk outside, there are trillions of dollars
20
60160
4000
01:04
that have been invested in infrastructure around the world,
21
64160
2000
01:06
putting up wires to get power from where it's created
22
66160
3000
01:09
to where it's used.
23
69160
2000
01:11
The other thing is, we love batteries.
24
71160
3000
01:14
And for those of us that have an environmental element to us,
25
74160
4000
01:18
there is something like 40 billion
26
78160
2000
01:20
disposable batteries built every year
27
80160
2000
01:22
for power that, generally speaking,
28
82160
2000
01:24
is used within a few inches or a few feet
29
84160
3000
01:27
of where there is very inexpensive power.
30
87160
2000
01:29
So, before I got here,
31
89160
3000
01:32
I thought, "You know, I am from North America.
32
92160
2000
01:34
We do have a little bit of a reputation in the United States."
33
94160
3000
01:37
So I thought I'd better look it up first.
34
97160
2000
01:39
So definition number six is the North American
35
99160
3000
01:42
definition of the word "suck."
36
102160
3000
01:45
Wires suck, they really do.
37
105160
2000
01:47
Think about it. Whether that's you in that picture
38
107160
3000
01:50
or something under your desk.
39
110160
2000
01:52
The other thing is, batteries suck too.
40
112160
3000
01:55
And they really, really do.
41
115160
2000
01:57
Do you ever wonder what happens to this stuff?
42
117160
2000
01:59
40 billion of these things built.
43
119160
2000
02:01
This is what happens.
44
121160
2000
02:03
They fall apart, they disintegrate,
45
123160
2000
02:05
and they end up here.
46
125160
2000
02:07
So when you talk about expensive power,
47
127160
3000
02:10
the cost per kilowatt-hour
48
130160
4000
02:14
to supply battery power to something
49
134160
2000
02:16
is on the order of two to three hundred pounds.
50
136160
3000
02:19
Think about that.
51
139160
2000
02:21
The most expensive grid power in the world
52
141160
2000
02:23
is thousandths of that.
53
143160
3000
02:26
So fortunately, one of the other definitions
54
146160
3000
02:29
of "suck" that was in there, it does create a vacuum.
55
149160
3000
02:32
And nature really does abhor a vacuum.
56
152160
3000
02:35
What happened back a few years ago
57
155160
2000
02:37
was a group of theoretical physicists at MIT
58
157160
4000
02:41
actually came up with this concept of transferring power over distance.
59
161160
4000
02:45
Basically they were able to light a 60 watt light bulb
60
165160
4000
02:49
at a distance of about two meters.
61
169160
2000
02:51
It got about 50 percent of the efficiency --
62
171160
3000
02:54
by the way, that's still a couple thousand times
63
174160
2000
02:56
more efficient than a battery would be, to do the same thing.
64
176160
3000
02:59
But were able to light that,
65
179160
2000
03:01
and do it very successfully.
66
181160
2000
03:03
This was actually the experiment. So you can see
67
183160
2000
03:05
the coils were somewhat larger.
68
185160
3000
03:08
The light bulb was a fairly simple task, from their standpoint.
69
188160
3000
03:11
This all came from a professor
70
191160
3000
03:14
waking up at night to the third night in a row
71
194160
2000
03:16
that his wife's cellphone was beeping
72
196160
2000
03:18
because it was running out of battery power.
73
198160
3000
03:21
And he was thinking, "With all the electricity that's out there in the walls,
74
201160
4000
03:25
why couldn't some of that just come into the phone so I could get some sleep?"
75
205160
3000
03:28
And he actually came up with this concept
76
208160
2000
03:30
of resonant energy transfer.
77
210160
2000
03:32
But inside a standard transformer are two coils of wire.
78
212160
4000
03:36
And those two coils of wire are really, really close to each other,
79
216160
3000
03:39
and actually do transfer power
80
219160
4000
03:43
magnetically and wirelessly, only over a very short distance.
81
223160
3000
03:46
What Dr. Soljacic figured out how to do
82
226160
3000
03:49
was separate the coils in a transformer
83
229160
3000
03:52
to a greater distance than the size of those transformers
84
232160
4000
03:56
using this technology, which is not dissimilar
85
236160
2000
03:58
from the way an opera singer shatters a glass on the other side of the room.
86
238160
4000
04:02
It's a resonant phenomenon
87
242160
2000
04:04
for which he actually received a MacArthur Fellowship Award,
88
244160
3000
04:07
which is nicknamed the Genius Award,
89
247160
2000
04:09
last September, for his discovery.
90
249160
3000
04:12
So how does it work?
91
252160
2000
04:14
Imagine a coil. For those of you that are engineers,
92
254160
3000
04:17
there's a capacitor attached to it too.
93
257160
2000
04:19
And if you can cause that coil to resonate,
94
259160
3000
04:22
what will happen is it will pulse
95
262160
2000
04:24
at alternating current frequencies --
96
264160
2000
04:26
at a fairly high frequency, by the way.
97
266160
3000
04:29
And if you can bring another device
98
269160
4000
04:33
close enough to the source,
99
273160
2000
04:35
that will only work at exactly that frequency,
100
275160
3000
04:38
you can actually get them to do what's called strongly couple,
101
278160
4000
04:42
and transfer magnetic energy between them.
102
282160
4000
04:46
And then what you do is, you start out with electricity,
103
286160
2000
04:48
turn it into magnetic field, take that magnetic field,
104
288160
2000
04:50
turn it back into electricity,
105
290160
2000
04:52
and then you can use it.
106
292160
3000
04:55
Number one question I get asked.
107
295160
2000
04:57
I mean, people are worried about cellphones being safe.
108
297160
2000
04:59
You know. What about safety?
109
299160
2000
05:01
The first thing is this is not a "radiative" technology.
110
301160
2000
05:03
It doesn't radiate.
111
303160
2000
05:05
There aren't electric fields here. It's a magnetic field.
112
305160
3000
05:08
It stays within either what we call the source,
113
308160
2000
05:10
or within the device.
114
310160
2000
05:12
And actually, the magnetic fields we're using
115
312160
2000
05:14
are basically about the same as the Earth's magnetic field.
116
314160
3000
05:17
We live in a magnetic field.
117
317160
2000
05:19
And the other thing that's pretty cool about the technology is
118
319160
3000
05:22
that it only transfers energy to things that work at exactly the same frequency.
119
322160
4000
05:26
And it's virtually impossible in nature to make that happen.
120
326160
4000
05:30
Then finally we have governmental bodies everywhere
121
330160
2000
05:32
that will regulate everything we do.
122
332160
2000
05:34
They've pretty much set field exposure limits,
123
334160
2000
05:36
which all of the things in the stuff I'll show you today
124
336160
2000
05:38
sort of sit underneath those guidelines.
125
338160
3000
05:41
Mobile electronics.
126
341160
2000
05:43
Home electronics.
127
343160
2000
05:45
Those cords under your desk, I bet everybody here
128
345160
2000
05:47
has something that looks like that or those batteries.
129
347160
3000
05:50
There are industrial applications.
130
350160
2000
05:52
And then finally, electric vehicles.
131
352160
2000
05:54
These electric cars are beautiful.
132
354160
2000
05:56
But who is going to want to plug them in?
133
356160
3000
05:59
Imagine driving into your garage -- we've built a system to do this --
134
359160
3000
06:02
you drive into your garage, and the car charges itself,
135
362160
4000
06:06
because there is a mat on the floor that's plugged into the wall.
136
366160
3000
06:09
And it actually causes your car to charge safely and efficiently.
137
369160
4000
06:13
Then there's all kinds of other applications. Implanted medical devices,
138
373160
3000
06:16
where people don't have to die of infections anymore
139
376160
2000
06:18
if you can seal the thing up.
140
378160
2000
06:20
Credit cards, robot vacuum cleaners.
141
380160
2000
06:22
So what I'd like to do is take a couple minutes
142
382160
2000
06:24
and show you, actually, how it works.
143
384160
4000
06:28
And what I'm going to do is to show you pretty much what's here.
144
388160
5000
06:33
You've got a coil.
145
393160
3000
06:36
That coil is connected to an R.F. amplifier
146
396160
3000
06:39
that creates a high-frequency oscillating magnetic field.
147
399160
4000
06:43
We put one on the back of the television set.
148
403160
2000
06:45
By the way, I do make it look a little bit easier than it is.
149
405160
3000
06:48
There's lots of electronics and secret sauce
150
408160
2000
06:50
and all kinds of intellectual property that go into it.
151
410160
5000
06:55
But then what's going to happen is, it will create a field.
152
415160
3000
06:58
It will cause one to get created
153
418160
2000
07:00
on the other side.
154
420160
3000
07:03
And if the demo gods are willing,
155
423160
2000
07:05
in about 10 seconds or so we should see it.
156
425160
2000
07:07
The 10 seconds actually are because we --
157
427160
2000
07:09
I don't know if any of you have ever thought about plugging a T.V. in
158
429160
3000
07:12
when you use just a cord.
159
432160
2000
07:14
Generally, you have to go over and hit the button. So I thought
160
434160
2000
07:16
we put a little computer in it that has to wake up
161
436160
2000
07:18
to tell it to do that.
162
438160
4000
07:26
So, I'll plug that in.
163
446160
2000
07:28
It creates a magnetic field here.
164
448160
3000
07:31
It causes one to be created out here.
165
451160
2000
07:33
And as I said, in sort of about 10 seconds
166
453160
3000
07:36
we should start to see ...
167
456160
4000
07:40
This is a commercially --
168
460160
2000
07:42
(Applause)
169
462160
7000
07:49
available color television set.
170
469160
3000
07:52
Imagine, you get one of these things. You want to hang them on the wall.
171
472160
2000
07:54
How many people want to hang them on the wall?
172
474160
2000
07:56
Think about it. You don't want those ugly cords coming down.
173
476160
2000
07:58
Imagine if you can get rid of it.
174
478160
2000
08:00
The other thing I wanted to talk about was safety.
175
480160
2000
08:02
So, there is nothing going on. I'm okay.
176
482160
4000
08:06
And I'll do it again, just for safety's sake.
177
486160
2000
08:08
Almost immediately, though, people ask,
178
488160
3000
08:11
"How small can you make this? Can you make this small enough?"
179
491160
3000
08:14
Because remember Dr. Soljacic's original idea
180
494160
4000
08:18
was his wife's cellphone beeping.
181
498160
2000
08:20
So, I wanted to show you something.
182
500160
3000
08:23
We're an equal opportunity designer of this sort of thing.
183
503160
2000
08:25
This a Google G1.
184
505160
2000
08:27
You know, it's the latest thing that's come out.
185
507160
2000
08:29
It runs the Android operating system.
186
509160
2000
08:31
I think I heard somebody talk about that before.
187
511160
2000
08:33
It's odd. It has a battery.
188
513160
2000
08:35
It also has coiled electronics
189
515160
2000
08:37
that WiTricity has put into the back of it.
190
517160
2000
08:39
And if I can get the camera --
191
519160
3000
08:42
okay, great --
192
522160
2000
08:44
you'll see, as I get sort of close...
193
524160
6000
08:50
you're looking at a cellphone powered completely wirelessly.
194
530160
4000
08:54
(Applause)
195
534160
5000
08:59
And I know some of you are Apple aficionados.
196
539160
3000
09:02
So, you know they don't make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones.
197
542160
2000
09:04
So we put a little sleeve on the back,
198
544160
2000
09:06
but we should be able to get this guy to wake up too.
199
546160
3000
09:09
And those of you that have an iPhone recognize the green center.
200
549160
7000
09:16
(Applause)
201
556160
1000
09:17
And Nokia as well.
202
557160
2000
09:19
You'll see that what we did there is put a little thing in the back, to do that,
203
559160
4000
09:23
and it probably beeps, actually, as it goes on as well.
204
563160
3000
09:26
But they typically use it to light up the screen.
205
566160
2000
09:28
So, imagine these things could go ... they could go in your ceiling.
206
568160
3000
09:31
They could go in the floor. They could go, actually, underneath your desktop.
207
571160
3000
09:34
So that when you walk in or you come in from home,
208
574160
3000
09:37
if you carry a purse, it works in your purse.
209
577160
2000
09:39
You never have to worry about plugging these things in again.
210
579160
4000
09:43
And think of what that would do for you.
211
583160
2000
09:45
So I think in closing,
212
585160
4000
09:49
sort of in the immortal visions of The New Yorker magazine,
213
589160
4000
09:53
I thought I'd put up one more slide.
214
593160
4000
09:57
And for those of you who can't read it, it says,
215
597160
2000
09:59
"It does appear to be some kind of wireless technology."
216
599160
2000
10:01
So, thank you very much.
217
601160
2000
10:03
(Applause)
218
603160
1000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7