Wireless charging may be all the rage these days, but actually beaming electricity -- as sketched above by the man Tesla himself -- still has some snags. North Carolina State U researchers have found a way to possibly vanquish the biggest problem: the difficulty of exactly matching resonant frequencies to amplify current. If external factors like temperature change the tuning of a transmitter even slightly then power drops will occur, but circuitry developed by the NC State scientists would allow receivers to detect these changes and automatically re-tune themselves to match. This could make for more potent car and device charging in the future and, if they stretch the distances a bit, maybe we'll finally get the wire-free utopia Nikola dreamed up 120 years ago.

Scientists tweak wireless power transfer, Tesla nods happily in his grave originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 May 2012 11:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.