无线输电技术可为手机、电动汽车甚至是心脏起搏器充电

[摘 要]本文摘编自CNN（美国有线电视新闻网）科技创新频道。文章介绍了WiTricity公司致力于实现无线输电技术的商业应用。阐述了无线输电技术的原理，目前的应用情况并展望了此技术的美好应用前景。

[关键词]无线输电技术 充电 谐振电能传输技术

中图分类号：TM724 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1009-914X（2014）29-0240-01

In a few years， you may never have to worry about manually charging your cell phone or paying for gasoline again.

几年之后，你或许再也不用为手动给手机充电或付汽油费而费心了。

Wireless electricity isn’t a new concept it was publicly demonstrated over 100 years ago by Nikola Tesla - but has remained elusive in broad commercial applications.

无线输电并不是一个新的概念，早在一百多年前，Nikola Tesla 就曾公开展示过，但此后一直难以实现广阔的商业应用。

However， a startup company says they are working to change that， with a business model that could make portable power commonplace.

然而，一家创业公司正在努力改变这种现状，他们创建的商业模式可使便携式电源成为人们日常生活的一部分。

WiTricity CEO Eric Giler demonstrated the company’s technology during a TED talk， in which he explained， “This all came from a professor waking up at night to the third night in a row that his wife’s cell phone was beeping because it was running out of battery power. And he was thinking， ‘With all of the electricity that’s out there in the walls， why couldn’t some of that just come into the phone so I could get some sleep？’”

WiTricity公司首席执行官Eric Giler在一个TED演讲中展示了公司的这项无线输电技术。灵感来源于一位教授的生活经历：他连续三个晚上被妻子手机的振动声吵醒，原因是手机没电而发出了警示音。睡眠备受打扰的他一直在琢磨，“为什么墙里的电不能直接为手机充电呢？如果可以，我不就能睡个安稳觉了吗？”

A team of MIT professors then developed what they call “resonant power transfer，” in which a power coil is able to wirelessly transfer electricity to another device containing a similar coil set to the same frequency.

麻省理工学院的教授团队研发出了这项“谐振电能传输技术”。其原理是：在相同频率上，一个电源线圈能给另一个带有相似线圈的设备无线输电。

"We're not actually putting electricity in the air. What we're doing is putting a magnetic field in the air，" Dr. Katie Hall， chief technology officer of WiTricity， told CNN. "When you bring a device into that magnetic field， it induces a current in the device， and by that you're able to transfer power.”

WiTricity总工程师Katie Hall博士向CNN记者介绍道：“事实上，我们并不是把电传输在空中，而是在空中布置了一个磁场。当你把一个接收设备带到这个磁场里时，它能感应到与电源相连的传输线圈里的电流，然后有效地利用磁感应来无线输电。”

Since 2007， WiTricity has conducted several public demonstrations， where they have used the technology to wirelessly power objects such as batteries， LED lights and cell phones.

自从2007年以来，WiTricity几次公开演示利用这项技术给一些设备无线供电，例如电池、LED灯和手机。

Wireless electricity is widely considered to be safe ， but WiTricity and other companies developing similar technology are still trying to find effective ways to efficiently transfer electricity over longer distances.Giler says that if the hurdle of transferring electricity over greater physical distances can be crossed， then wireless electricity would quickly replace the world of cables.

无线输电技术的安全性已无可置疑，但WiTricity和其他研发相似技术的公司仍致力于寻找远距离、高效无线输电的有效方法。Giler表示只要能攻克远距离无线输电这个难题，无线输电将很快取代今天的线缆输电，成为主角。

If all goes to WiTricity's plans， smartphones will charge in your pocket as you wander around， televisions will flicker with no wires attached， and electric cars will refuel while sitting on the driveway. Beyond these effort-saving applications， WiTricity is now working with a medical company to recharge a left-ventricular assist device -- "a heart-pump， essentially."

如果一切都能按WiTricity的计划进行，有一天，当你散步徘徊时，你的智能手机即使装在口袋里也能充电；就算没有连接线，电视画面也能正常播放；而今天备受充电困扰的电动汽车停在车道上就能完成充电。除了这些省力的应用， WiTricity目前正与一家医疗公司合作，为一个左心室辅助装置----“心脏起搏器”无线充电。

摘编自CNN（美国有线电视新闻网）科技创新频道

参考文献：

[1] ？Nick Glass ，Matthew Ponsford. Wireless electricity may soon power cell phones， cars and

even heart pumps[EB/OL].2014-03-28[2014-03-28].

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