Jeff Lieberman's Levitating Lightbulb...
Dec 24, 2008 at 7:00 AM 
I could just see my kid breaking this fucker. Such a dope concept.
light bulb
A levitating wirelessly powered lightbulb.
light bulb is a levitating yet powered lightbulb. It will float stably in midair and remain on for years without any physical contact, charging, or batteries. Ironically, with the levitation and wireless power circuitry both on, this entire package still consumes less than half the power of an incandescent bulb.
This is not a trick or a photoshop manipulation. The bulb and the casing contain hidden circuitry [shown in figures] that uses electromagnetic feedback to levitate the bulb roughly 2.5" from the nearest object, and uses coupled resonant wireless power transfer to beam power from the housing into the bulb itself.
Tesla invented wireless power transfer in the late 1890's. However this effect is still largely underutilized. I wanted to explore this effect coupled with feedback stabilization of a naturally unstable object. Details in the figures highlight the embedded circuitry and techniques used to levitate and power the bulb.
For press images or the high resolution movie, please email me.
Check the site for more!
Reader Comments (2)
Supercool. Could you imagine seeing this in 1900? I don't believe that he suspended the bulbs electro-magnetically, but Nikola Tesla powered long lighting tubes wirelessly and picked them up to carry them around to wherever he needed them in his laboratory workshop. Great ideas never die.
Happy Holidays!
That is dripping with awesome sauce. Damn thing nearly blew my mind. It's like a more modern and stylistic approach to putting a light bulb in a microwave. Wait? Is this healthy?!