A research team at the MIT was able to light a 60W light-bulb from a power source seven feet (more than 2 meters) away; there was no physical connection between the source and the appliance. The MIT team refers to their concept as "WiTricity" (as in Wireless Electricity).

Wireless power transmission has been stuff from Sci-Fi movies. Early this year at the CES 2007 Fulton Innovation debuted their eCoupled wireless power technology. eCoupled is based on inductive coupling, pioneered by Nicolas Tesla in 1880. eCoupled refined the method to achieve wireless power transfer with only 2% loss.

The MIT Witricity wireless power transfer technology is also based on magnetic coupling. On short distances the Witricity reaches an efficiency of 80%. As far as I can see (I am not a researcher, and slept through physics class) eCoupled and Witricity are very similar. The race is on, on who has more patents and who is faster to the market with wireless power.
More details on the MIT site. Via the WSJ.