Research of Interest, 8/29/09 Edition

So, I've been stumbling across some interesting research this week, some of which has some really great applications. I figured that I'd share some of these with everyone. 

MIT's Bokode

I just ran across this research and watched their demonstration video for this technology, and I have to say, this is an amazing use of an understood and somewhat scientifically unnoticed physical phenomena in a completely new way. This is the kind of novelty that makes research such a pleasure to be a part of. 

Basically, their approach is to utilize the Bokeh effect, which distorts out of focus light, to encode visual information that can only be observed through an out of focus camera/sensor (that is, one whose focal point is infinity rather than the "object" being sensed). Their direct application is to use this to reduce the size of fidicuals created for computer vision/augmented reality systems, as well as increasing the robustness of the angle calculations and the range detection of these systems.

That might not have made much sense, but their demonstration does an excellent job describing their work.

To read more about their work, check out their research website:

• Bokode: Imperceptible Visual Tags for Camera Based Interaction from a Distance

Magnetic Resonance for Power Transmission

I also ran across this TED talk given by Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricity, which capitalizes on the work of some other MIT researchers (except in the Physics department, this time!) Over the past few years,  I've had a number of non-ECE's ask me about the possibility of wireless power transmission. For the most part, I've been a nay-sayer of the technology. 

However, the demonstration given at this talk and the approach that they have implemented has me starting to see the "light" in this work. My main concern with wireless transmission has been my assumption that transmission would be via some EM frequency band, which conjured visions of burning holes in the atmosphere and highly dangerous and inefficient broadcast systems.

But this system relies on magnetic resonance versus some EM broadcast, which is a really interesting idea. Basically, they're pulling the two coils of a transformer apart, separating them by meters currently, but hopefully miles in the future. Giler does a better job explaining their technology than I do, though, so I'll let you watch the video and see for yourselves.

I still had a couple of engineering questions after watching this:

1. How efficient is the power transfer (for the transmitter)?
2. How focused is power transmission (how much can we expect to lose into the air? Does it even work like that?)
3. How can these systems be made larger/smaller?
4. How much additional tech is needed to separate a transmitter and receiver by a "real" distance?

I suppose I'm just really looking for equations, maybe I should read the some of the supporting papers :)

So what do you all think? Have you come across any other interesting and novel pieces of research recently?