Disney does not just bring childhood fantasies to life through fairy tales and theme parks but they are actually aiming to make science fiction fantasy to reality right into each home. In fact, its research and innovation arm, Disney Research, is already testing it.
Disney Research has been studying a process called the quasistatic cavity resonance or QSCR, which enables electricity to flow into different electronic devices without using any wires - in short, wireless electricity.
Wireless power delivery is not a new idea but was already experimented on by Nikola Tesla in 1890 using spark-excited radio frequency resonant transformers or what is popularly known as Tesla coils. However, he was not able to figure out how to do this on a bigger scale. At present, the technology is already in use but still small scale - wireless phone chargers.
Disney Research aims to use this technology they call as ubiquitous wireless power transfer to be used in a much larger scale - powering homes wirelessly. The team has been able to achieve this in a recent experiment.
What they did was construct a room made with aluminum panels. Then, they placed a big copper pipe in the middle of the room equipped with discrete capacitors inside. These capacitors create the electromagnetic frequency of the room. The electromagnetic currents flow through the pipe and all the sides of the room creating a magnetic field. All electronic devices that are placed in this area are automatically powered by this electromagnetic current.
According to the Disney researchers, the room can power up to 10 electronic devices. It also passed the federal safety guidelines and is generally safe for humans and animals. They said that the invention can be scaled up and that regulations for metallic walls can be reduced. Another alternative is retrofitting houses with conductive paint or modular panels.
