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Wireless Electricity Is Here 电力也无线化了

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You’ve used the Internet without cables – now try recharging batteries without wires  你已经尝过不靠线路就能连结上网的滋味──如今你还可以试试不用电源就能帮电池充电的便利喔

After more than 100 years of dashed hopes, several companies are coming to market with technologies that can safely transmit power through the air. Until this development, the phrase “mobile electronics” has been a lie: How mobile is your phone if it shuts down after too long away from a plug? And how flexible is your business if your production area can’t shift because you can’t move the ceiling lights? But the world is about to be cured of its attachment disorder.

一百多年来，历经一次次希望破灭之后，数家企业终于推出运用隔空安全传输电力的科技问世，而直到这个长足发展问世之前，所谓「行动电子」一词其实算是个谎言；因为如果你的移动电话很久没插上插头充电，就会关机的话，哪还有「行动」可言呢？此外，如果你们公司的生产区域无法挪移，只因为没办法移动天花板的照明的话，那么你们公司还有什么弹性可言呢？只不过，如今全世界即将治愈那种依附失调症了（译注：指必须依赖电线等电源的毛病）。

Inductive coupling  电感耦合（译注：或译感性耦合、磁感耦合）

The first wireless powering system to market is an inductive device. It looks like a mouse pad and can send power through the air, over a distance of up to a few inches. A powered coil inside that pad creates a magnetic field, which induces current to flow through a small secondary coil that’s built into any portable device, such as a flashlight, a phone or a BlackBerry. The electrical current that then flows in that secondary coil charges the device’s onboard rechargeable battery.

头一个问世的无线电力系统是一种电感装置，外表看起来很像鼠标垫，可以隔空把电力传送到最远可达几吋以外的地方。垫子内部的动力线圈会产生磁场，并将电流导入安装在任何其他可携式器材内、更小的第二层线圈里，这些器材包括手电筒、电话或黑莓机等，之后，流入第二层线圈的电流就会帮该器材中的可充电电池充电。

The practical benefit of this approach is huge. You can drop any number of devices on the charging pad, and they will recharge – wirelessly. No more tangle of power cables or jumble of charging stations. What’s more, because you are invisible to the magnetic fields created by the system, no electricity will flow into you if you stray between device and pad. Nor are there any exposed metal connections. And the pads are smart: Their built-in coils are driven by integrated circuits, which know if the device sitting on them is authorized to receive power, or if it needs power at all. So you won’t charge your car keys or overcharge your flashlight.

这种方式的实际效益极为庞大，随便把任何数量的装置放到充电垫上──就可以无线充电，从此不必再为纠结成团的电线或乱成一团的充电器烦心了。尤有甚者（译注：what’s more指重要性等同前者或更高的事实），由于人体对于该系统的磁场而言，宛如是隐形的存在，因此即使你不小心走到装置和垫子之间的区域，也不会有电流流到你身上，也不会有任何金属连线外露的问题。此外，垫子属于智能型产品；因为其内置的线圈是透过集成电路所驱动，后者会分辨出放在垫子上的装置是不是有权限可加以充电的产品，或是该装置究竟需不需要充电，如此一来，你就不用担心会不小心把汽车钥匙充电了，或是把手电筒充电过度等问题。

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attachment disorder [əˋtætʃmənt] n. 依附失调症 a behavioral disorder in which a person has difficulty bonding with others and forming healthy relationships

inductive [ɪnˋdʌktɪv] adj.【电】感应的 referring to the process of electrical power going from one object to another without the objects touching

coil [kɔɪl] n.【电】线圈

flashlight [ˋflæʃ͵laɪt] n.【美】手电筒; （照相机等的）闪光灯

onboard [ˋɑnˋbord] adj. 内建的

tangle [ˋtæŋg!] adj. 乱糟糟的一团[S][（+of）]

jumble [ˋdʒʌmb!] n. 混乱；杂乱的一堆[S][（+of）]

stray [stre] v. 闲逛

integrated circuit 集成电路(IC); 积体电路 a very small electronic unit, which consists of many small parts, set on a piece of material that allows electricity to move through it more easily when its temperature increases

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Radio-frequency harvesting  射频收集

The induction systems are only the beginning. Some of the most visually arresting examples of wireless electricity are based on what’s known as radio frequency, or RF. While less efficient, they work across distances of up to 85 feet. In these systems, electricity is transmitted across a room, then received by so-called power harvesters and translated back into low-voltage direct current. Imagine smoke detectors or clocks that never need their batteries replaced.

电感系统还只是初步阶段而已，无线电力最令人眼睛一亮的一些例子，往往是以简称RF的射频为基础。虽然射频的效率比较低，最高只能在八十五呎的距离以内运作。在这些系统中，电力会被转化成无线电波，然后在室内隔空传输，并由所谓的电力收集器所接收，然后再转换成低电压的直流电。不妨试着想象一下，烟雾侦测器或时钟如果永远都不需要更换电池，该有多么方便啊。

This technology is already being used by the U.S. Department of Defense. This year, it will be available to consumers in the form of a few small appliances and wireless sensors; down the road, it will appear in wireless boxes into which you can toss any and all of your electronics for recharging.

「美国国防部」也已运用了这种科技。在今年，消费者也能透过几种小型装置和无线传感器来亲自体验一下，在未来，这种技术可望以无线盒的形式现身，随便任何电子装置都可以扔进去充电。

Magnetically coupled resonance  磁耦合共振

Invented by MIT’s Marin Soljacic (who has dubbed it WiTricity), the technique can power an entire room, assuming the room is filled with enabled devices. Though WiTricity uses two coils – one powered, one not – Soljacic’s coils don’t have to be close to each other to transfer energy. Instead, they depend on so-called magnetic resonance. Like acoustical resonance, which allows an opera singer to break a glass across the room by vibrating it with the correct frequency of her voice’s sound waves, magnetic resonance can launch an energetic response in something far away. In this case, the response is the flow of electricity out of the receiving coil and into the device to which it’s connected. The only caveat is that receiving coil must be properly “tuned” to match the powered coil.

美国「麻省理工学院」的马林．索亚奇发明的这项技术（索亚奇称之为WiTricity）（译注：WiTricity结合了wireless和electricity两个字），能在整个房间里传输电力，前提是室内都安装了采用这种系统的特殊器材。虽然WiTricity要利用两个线圈──其中一个有动力，另一个则无──但线圈之间却不必很靠近也照样能传送能量，因为它们依赖的是所谓的磁共振，这类似音频共振。音频共振的原理，也就是当歌剧女伶歌声的音波（译注：或译声波）在正确的频率下，会使室内对面的玻璃震动，并震碎玻璃，同样地，磁共振也能引发远方的物体产生能量响应，而就后者的例子来说，所产生的回应就是接收的线圈中电流会流出，并流入所链接的装置里。唯一需要提醒的地方就是，接收的线圈必须进行适当的「微调」，以便配合动力线圈。

Importantly, then, WiTricity doesn’t depend on line-of-sight. A powered coil in your basement could power the rest of the house wirelessly.

很重要的一点是，WiTricity不需要维持直视性（译注：直视性即眼睛可以看见且视线呈直线的路径），因此在你家地下室的动力线圈照样能帮整栋屋子的装置进行无线电力传输。

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radio frequency 射频; 无线电射频

harvester [ˋhɑrvɪstɚ] n. 收获机; 收集器

direct current 直流电 a flow of electricity that moves in one direction with constant strength

down the road 将来 in the future

magnetic resonance 磁共振 the absorption of certain radio and microwave radiation frequencies by atoms being placed in a magnetic field

acoustical [əˋkustɪk!] adj. 声的，声音的

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A major market  主要市场

The market for wireless electricity has inventors and investors upbeat, even in a down market. “This is going to be so big I don’t think I can even get my arms around the market impact,” says Steve Anderson’s, the senior vice president for Texas Instruments’ Power Management group. Anderson’s crew is developing the integrated circuits that manage the power flow in wireless inductive power pads. “This is a huge step,” he says.

无线电力市场的商机令发明家和投资客都满怀希望，即使是下滑市场也不例外。「商机将极为庞大，而市场影响力之大甚至超乎我所能估量，」「德州仪器」公司旗下电力管理集团资深副总裁史提夫．安德森表示。安德森率领的小组成员正进行研发相关的集成电路，以供在无线电感电力垫内操控电流之用，「这是业界跨出的一大步，」他说道。

According to a 2006 Department of Energy study, more than 700 million power-supply devices (chargers, charging stands, transformers and the like) will be sold in the U.S. in 2010, a $6 billion market. Worldwide, the market runs to about $30 billion. “As far as we can tell,” says Andrew Fanara, the team leader for the EPA’s Energy Star Products Group, “there are at least two external power adapters in the world for every man, woman and child on the planet – about 12-to-15 billion of them.”

根据「美国能源部」在二００六年所发布的研究显示，到了二０一０年，美国市场将会售出超过七亿台的电力供应装置（包括充电器、充电座、变压器，以及类似商品），市场值达六十亿美元，至于全球市场值则约三百亿美元左右。「就我们的估算来说，」「美国环境保护署」能源之星产品集团主持人安德鲁．法纳拉表示，「这相当于全世界每个男性、女性和小孩，平均每人至少拥有两台电源整流器──共约有一百二十亿至一百五十亿台左右。」（译注：据联合国在今年三月发布的数据显示，目前全球人口为六十八亿）

Neat and clean  整齐清洁

But wireless technology is not only neater (say good-bye to the power-strip Medusa under your office desk), it’s cleaner. The EPA says Americans purchase a total of 3 billion disposable dry-cell batteries every year (part of a worldwide market of about 15 billion) and then throw 2.8 billion of them into landfills. Wireless systems are designed for rechargeable batteries that can be reused hundreds of times before they become trash.

不过，无线科技不只是更为整齐而已（可以和办公桌下面宛如蛇发女妖的延长线电源插座说再见了），它也更清洁喔。「美国环境保护署」指出，美国人每年总共购买了三十亿颗用完即丢的干电池（而全球市场则大约有一百五十亿颗左右），然后这当中有二十八亿颗最后都被丢到垃圾掩埋场。无线系统就是设计来让可充电电池能持续使用好几百次之后，才会成为垃圾。

And according to WiPower, inductive charging systems work with about 80 to 90 percent efficiency – roughly the same as plugging directly into a wall socket. That blows away the industry average for wired chargers, around 40 percent. So wireless juice is not only less messy, it’s less hungry, too.

据「无线电力」公司指出。电感充电系统的效率高达百分之八十至九十左右──和直接插入墙壁式插座的效能差不多高，而且立刻把业界有电线的充电器比下去，因为后者效能平均只有百分之四十左右。因此，无线电力不但更整洁，而且还更能喂饱电池喔。

−by Paul Hochman

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get one’s arms around something 充分了解..  to feel confident that one has a good understanding of something that is complicated; fully understand an issue or situation

stand [stænd] n. (供放置物品的) 架，台

transformer [trænsˋfɔrmɚ] n.【电】变压器

EPA 美国环境保护署(Environmental Protection Agency) a U.S. governmental group that establishes and enforces rules to protect the environment and control pollution

power adapter 电源转换器

Medusa [məˋdjusə] n.（希腊神话中）长有蛇发令人恐怖的女妖 from Greek mythology, a woman transformed into a creature with snakes for hair

socket [ˋsɑkɪt]n.【电】插座；插口

blow away 打败 to defeat decisively

juice [dʒus] n.【俚】电; 电力; 电流 electric current (informal)

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Vocabulary Focus

dashed [dæʃt] adj.（希望或期望）破灭的 broken; destroyed

transmit [trænsˋmɪt] v. 传送，传达 to send out or carry signals, such as radio or television

harvest [ˋhɑrvɪst] v. 获得，得到 to gain, catch or take something for use

arresting [əˋrɛstɪŋ] adj. 引人注意的；醒目的；有趣的 attracting or catching someone’s attention

enabled [ɪnˋeb!d] adj. 启动的 provided with a particular type of technology or system needed to use with a particular device

caveat [ˋkevɪ͵æt] n. 警告; 事先声明; 注意事项 a warning to consider something before acting further

upbeat [ˋʌp͵bit] adj. 令人乐观的；欢快的 full of hope, happiness and good feelings

landfill [ˋlændfɪl] n. 垃圾填埋地 a place where garbage is buried

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