Communications (MIC) has been working on R&D and standardization of wireless power transmission technologies, which enable noncontact or wireless power supply to home appliances like TVs.

Toshiba Corp made the proposal of the R&D and standardization, which is currently being evaluated by an ad hoc team under the Radio Wave Policy Council, a study group at MIC. They are aiming to commercialize the technologies in between 2015 and 2020 though the schedule may change depending on the difficulty of the technology development, according to the team.

The ad hoc team considers that three types of technologies have to be established.

(1) A technology that utilizes a general electromagnetic induction method and features a transmission range of less than several millimeters, electricity of several hundred watts or less and a frequency less than several hundred kHz

(2) A technology that was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is called resonant induction. Using a frequency ranging from several to several hundred MHz, it is capable of wireless transmission with a transmission range of several tens of centimeters and electricity of several hundred watts.

(3) A technology for receiving radio waves by a highly-efficient receiving circuit and retrieving DC power via a rectifier circuit

The first technology, which has already been adopted for some products on the market, is expected to be standardized by 2015, according to MIC. As for the second and third technologies, "we are about to pinpoint issues, aiming to commercialize the technologies around 2020," according to MIC [via techon]