Wireless power has been a dream of inventors for more than a hundred years. In fact, a hundred years ago humans had the technology. The technology meant any electrical device, like a motor, could be lit without any wires attached to it, not even to a wall outlet. It was electricity that was free to access by anyone, at any time and any place; Therefore it was an unmeasurable resource of power. And it was the fact that it was unmeasurable that made such a technology unprofitable. In fact, George Westinghouse, the founder of Westinghouse Electric saw this free source of electricity as a competitor and fought strongly against its formation. It has been proposed by historians that because no one wanted to invest in an energy source that couldn't yield profit the wireless electricity was never developed to its full potential.

The wireless electricity was invented by one of the greatest inventors of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla. Historians believe that had Tesla been allowed to develop his free wireless electricity, it would have been revolutionary and we'd be living in a completely different, possibly more technologically advanced, state in the 21st century. Tesla had hoped that our cars, planes and homes would have been built around harnessing the electricity around us for free.

The way the electricity is transmitted is appropriately labeled, the Tesla effect. The electrical conductor used the flux in magnetic fields and was sent by electrostatic forces through natural materials. Much of the effect of electricity derived from magnetic conduction can be observed today in Tesla coils, another one of his inventions, which are used in televisions and radios. However, as mentioned, Tesla had envisioned a wider range of technology to be used this way.

Since his death, the Tesla effect has been re-created in minor forms. Less than a year ago MIT students had showed some promise in recreating Tesla's inventions by illuminating a wireless lightbulb that was two meters aways from any power source that was visible to the naked eye. The MIT students had moved away from traditionally used magnetic inductive coupling and into resonant coupling- where two coils resonate at the same frequency and thus can detect each other more strongly than had they been at different frequencies. As a result, the energy is more efficient by about 45%.

A few weeks ago at a “Tesla Tech Conference” the Tesla effect was shown on a small scale to power a miniature-sized boat that was powered through the air by magnetic fields between two Tesla coils. There were no batteries or other sources of power on the miniature-boat other than the magnetic field created by the coils. No one was zapped and the experiment seemed to be rather safe.

And now, just last week, Intel has shown their own take on Tesla's invention. They sent more than enough electrical power wirelessly to power a modern day laptop, about 60 watts at 75% efficiency over two feet of space. They used the same resonant coupling of coils that MIT had done previously. It was done entirely safe without anyone being injured by the electrical currents. In an online video that shows off the experiment, Alanson Sample, an Intel intern, said that the hope was to create a practical power device with a “laptop design,” or “wireless usb devices.” Justin Rattner, Intel's CTO, explained how a practical scenario for the usage of such devices is one that involves users bringing their laptops within range of such a wireless power station when their batteries have depleted. He also suggested that the dream should be visualized "sometime in the next four years."

Some concern has been raised, by the media and even Intel itself that the experiment might be perceived as dangerous. However, magnetic fields are something the human body experiences every day from Earth. That includes the fluctuations in the magnetic field. However, at certain frequencies and because the technology is being used in a new way, precaution is still justifiable. As Intel researcher Josh Smith said: "The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it's can you do it safely and efficiently."