Is this real or What?

27

Has anyone seen this Think Geek ad? I am not sure if this is a gag or not?

Think Geek Ad

This device claims to have a 300 foot range and has 15 amp plugs on it.
The ad does not indicate power ratings and does not provide any other technical data other than they have tested it at 300 feet (sounds fishy to me)

Scientists are currently working on being able to charge portable devices powering laptops with a range of around 16 feet.

BBC News Link

Also I am sure most of you have heard about the MIT experiment.

Wireless energy could power consumer, industrial electronics

In the article they state:

“But the team calculates that an object the size of a laptop could be recharged within a few meters of the power source. ”

And on top of this Think Geek is only charging $34.99 for this device.

Could this be a gag gift? Have any of our readers purchased this device? If so
Could you provide us with feedback?

This really looks like a gag to me!!

You May Also Like

CRISTAL – Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces

Zippo Burglar Alarm

Slashbot – Guitar Hero Robot by Texas A&M Electrical Engineering

27 Comments


  1. Thats last years april fools….. just click on order.


  2. This is unreal for now… Cuz if it’s real it should explode eggs and burn anything near it…


  3. You could do it with a big-ass electromagnet


  4. No it’s real…I have one and I keep it in my pocket when I sit at my PC. Its keeps my “man business” very warm and toasty. Of course I have noticed that in the winter I talk funny and have no interest in pr0n. Odd.


  5. i’m not saying it’s impossible or possible, but
    tesla did a simular experiments before.


  7. Yeah its a fake… they have awesome april fools jokes….

    except the 8bit tie, That one was actually made…


  8. If Tesla couldn’t get it working, it’ll never happen


  9. Well I was fooled enough to go to the FCC site and find out that the 7.2 GHz band is for sat. to earth communication. On the other hand, this hit my inbox at the same time.
    https://www.wildcharge.com/


  10. The wildcharger looks cool, but is rather pricey. This sounds like a good hacked gadgets project to try to duplicate this for less.


  11. Warning: Even though these microwaves are about as harmful as the leakage from an ordinary microwave oven (not much), do not put computers, televisions, other sensitive electrical equipment, food, liquids, paper, glass, flammable substances, magnets, or living things in between the base and satellite units. Just in case.

    go figure 😛


  12. I remember watching that Tesla documentary, everyone thought he was mad trying to transmit large amounts of power through the air… But he was somewhat successfully until he was forced to quit is how I think it went.

    Who is the modern day Tesla? Is there one?


  13. This device is entirely possible and, in fact, has been invented a long time ago. Note this from Wikipedia:

    “William C. Brown demonstrated in 1964 on the CBS Walter Cronkite news a microwave-powered model helicopter that received all the power needed for flight from a microwave beam. Between 1969 and 1975 Bill Brown was technical director of a JPL Raytheon program that beamed 30 kW over a distance of 1 mile at 84% efficiency.”

    Furthermore,again from Wiki:
    “A rectenna is a rectifying antenna, a special type of antenna that is used to directly convert microwave energy into DC electricity. Its elements are usually arranged in a multi element phased array with a mesh pattern reflector element to make it directional.
    Rectennas are highly efficient at converting microwave energy to electricity. In laboratory environments, efficiencies above 90% have been observed with regularity.”

    ’nuff said?
    mrfixitrick
    ps Tesla did transmit power over a distance even before 1900.(not microwave) Somehow the art got…uhhh…”lost”.


  15. Besides the fact that it erally is a joke, does anybody else notice a strange resemblance to X10 receivers??


  16. The ‘art’ of transmitting power though the air didn’t get lost. We just use it for something else. Wireless communication.


  17. it’s MicroWave transmission it’s as old as radio, and it doesn’t work well, has a tendency to kill most anything in the line of site and starts fires.
    those I couldn’t tell ya..
    it’s the same concept as pointing a flashlight at a solar panel.


  18. Microwaves can light up fluorescent light bulbs. I am not talking about the microwave you have in your kitchen. The ones that are used by the military for there radar.


  20. Also could power cancer and other rare diseases. Playing with waves has a dark side for human bodies.


  21. Hey Tesla “played with waves” all his rather long 87 year-old life, until he was murdered.


  22. here’s a blurb from answers.com re: solar-powered satellites(SPS) beaming Gigawatts of energy to earth by microwave:

    “The use of microwave transmission of power has been the most controversial item concerning SPS development, but the incineration of anything which strays into the beam’s path is an extreme misconception.

    At the earth’s surface, the microwave beam has a maximum intensity in the center of 23 mW/cm2 (less than l/4 the solar constant) and an intensity of less than 1 mW/cm2 outside of the rectenna fenceline[31] (10 mW/cm2 is the current United States microwave exposure standard). According to US Federal OSHA, [40] the workplace exposure limit (10 mW/sq. cm.) is expressed in voluntary language and has been ruled unenforceable for Federal OSHA enforcement.

    The beam’s most intense section (the center) is far below the danger levels of concentration even for an exposure which has been prolonged indefinitely. [41] Furthermore, the possibility of exposure to the intense center of the beam can easily be controlled on the ground and an airplane flying through the beam surrounds its passengers with a protective layer of metal or Faraday Cage, which will intercept the microwaves. Over 95% of the beam will fall on the rectenna. The remaining microwaves will be dispersed to low concentrations well within standards currently imposed upon microwave emissions around the world.[42]”

    so, although possible to transmit the power from satellites, tinfoil hats are recommended! haha


  23. One of the problems of wireless power is not so much turning it on, but turning it off… i.e. how do you turn off a TV but keep a laptop on thats right next to it?


  24. Hi Jake,

    Not sure I get the problem. You could just use the power switch. 🙂 All of our devices are plugged in all the time right now.


  25. tesla died because of natural causes. he wasnt murdered


  26. Cant resist:

    “Power over Wireless” useful, getting in between them ouch !

Comments are closed.