Intel researchers are working on wireless power that doesn't use a conductive pad. Instead, it uses magnets and a tuned directional transfer coil to send music from an iPod a couple of feet to a speaker. Saw it. It works!
This setup is deceptively simple. There's an electro-magnetized ring of wire sending 1-watt signal at 7.6-something MHz. From there, a carefully placed and wound coil of wire (yellow) sends the magnetic signal in a direction where another smaller coil (green) specifically tuned to receive the power and send it to a tiny speaker. It reminds me of the way a generator or motor work, somehow. The range was about 3 feet and the music was quiet by audible and worked when I moved the speaker in different directions. Impressive!
The chances of this making its way into mobile gadgets that charge with no cables or pads, ever? We're far off. The range and power are dependent on the size of the coils and the exact way they are wound, so they resonate the magnetic signals just right. Maybe a micro array of these, optimized several generations from now, will do the trick.
Or maybe the Dharma institute already has the answers.