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I am a serious layman when it comes to this type of stuff, but I swear I remember reading about similar wireless power years ago. I even remember seeing a video of a lightbulb being illuminated without being attached to anything. What makes it this year's game-changing tech? Is it the WiFi aspect?

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Yes, Tesla demonstrated wireless power in 1891

Wireless transmission has been demonstrated by others before Tesla e.g. Heinrich Hertz. And I mean induction is arguably a form of wireless transmission which has been verified by Faraday in the 1830s. The problem is now as it was then that wireless transmission is governed by the inverse square law and therefore inefficient to the point of being unusable in most real world application.

Intel demonstrated wireless power a few years back[0], as well.

0. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/413957/intels-wireless-...

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