Intel is doing their best to try to be the first to cut people the last cord holding laptops back - the power cord.  They demoed the technology this past Thursday at an annual developers forum, powering a 60 watt bulb using the technology.  While this may not seem like a big deal, keep in mind many laptops use less than 60 watts - making this breakthrough pretty substantial.

The up side?  No unsafe side effects to humans or surrounding items (that is, nothing discovered yet), something that plagues many “wireless power” ideas that have come in the past.  Intel’s design delivers power via magnetic field, compared to prior designs that pretty much amounted to shooting electric bolts across the room, hitting anything that might be in the way.

While I know this technology is far from being perfected (and made cheap), it does bring some hope to me - I’m so tired of having to stay plugged in most of the time.  And think if this can be adapted and shrunk to become the size of a standard laptop power adapter - you could have a nice, portable wireless power adapter to plug into any room, any building.  Of course, I would surely lose/forget my adapter ALL THE TIME, since I wouldn’t be stuck to it and whatnot.

My only concern?  While Intel is saying “the human body is not affected by magnetic fields,” magnets are used in various ways to help the human body heal - obviously there are effects.  What effects would this power system have on us, especially if it were cranked up to a kilowatt or so to cover powering a whole room?

Read up more:
http://news.yahoo.com/story/afp/20080821/ts_afp/usitinternetenergychipcompanyintel

http://blogs.intel.com/research/2008/08/you_have_to_see_thiswireless_p.php