The spaghetti jumble next to the power socket may soon be unravelled for the last time thanks to a technology which enables power to be transmitted wirelessly.

Intel, the chip-maker, is working on a technology that would enable electronic devices such as PCs and mobile phones to be powered simply by placing them on a desk or table top.

The company said it had successfully used a magnetic field to transmit 60 watts of power a distance of two to three feet, and that it ultimately envisaged wireless chargers being built into household surfaces.

In experiments involving a wirelessly powered lightbulb, only 25 per cent of the power was lost in the transmission, Intel said.

"Something like this technology could be embedded in tables and work surfaces," Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer, told The New York Times, "so as soon as you put down an appropriately equipped device it would immediately begin drawing power."

Mr Rattner said a team would present the findings of their research at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco this week.

Wireless power works by using magnetic fields to transfer power via process known as resonant induction. Typically, a coil of wire in one unit - known as the transmitter - creates a magnetic field that induces a current in a nearby unit, known as the receiver.

Magnetically-induced wireless charging is already deployed in some consumer devices - for instance electric toothbrushes, but the unit receiving the power always has to be placed on a base station. Intel has succeeded in increasing the distance that electricity can travel wirelessly.

A separate group working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has managed to transmit power wirelessly over a distance of several metres, though 50 per cent of the energy was lost in the process. MIT calls its technology 'Witricity'.

"In the future your kitchen counters might provide power to devices," Mr Rattner said. "You'd just drop your espresso maker down on them and you would never have to plug it in."

He said that ultimately all types of devices, including PDAs and mobile phones could begin using the technology but Intel would focus initially on developing a wireless charger for laptops.

Several companies have released "wireless mats" - typically about 20cm x 20cm - which can charge devices, but none has taken off because all require devices to have customised components with metal studs which can receive the power.

WildCharge, a Colorado-based company, has released a special backplate for the Morotola RAZR which enables the phone's battery to receive power from its mat, and plans to introduce similar adapters for the iPod Nano and for Blackberry.

Fulton Innovation, another US company, is meanwhile working with Visteon, the car parts manufacturer, on a product which will recharge a phone when it is dropped into a vehicle's cup holder.

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