Researchers at MIT are working on a system to power electronic devices without power cords:

...the researchers designed an emitter to make use of long-lived resonances with "non-radiative" objects. This keeps the energy close to the antenna until another object with a similar resonance comes within range—no broadcasting into space is necessary. The two resonating objects can sync their frequencies easily, which would then cause energy to "tunnel from one object to another," Professor Soljacic told the BBC. When not transferring energy to another device, "most" unused energy simply gets reabsorbed into the emitter.

The MIT team's system is designed for use in a home or office, as it can transfer energy to other devices within 3 to 5 meters of the emitter. However, the antenna's range doesn't have to be limited to just that, says Professor Soljacic. "This would work in a room let's say but you could adapt it to work in a factory," he said, adding that it could also be scaled down to be used on a microscopic level as well because the range would be determined by the size of the emitter.