Here's
How Your Phone Can Harvest Its Own Radio Waves to Boost Battery
DAVID NIELD
The
feeling of anxiety over how long your smartphone battery is going to last is
one that's familiar to most of us, but a team from the Ohio State University in
the US has come up with an unusual source of extra power: radio waves emitted
by the devices themselves.
In
tests, the researchers were able to boost battery life by as much as 30
percent.
While
systems already exist to harvest power from ambient electromagnetic energy
sources (such as radio waves), until now the technology has been limited in
size and scope.
In
this case, because the radio waves are captured at source - almost as soon as
the smartphone emits them - they produce a more powerful charging effect that
can make a substantial difference to battery life.
When
a smartphone looks for a cell tower or Wi-Fi network, it emits signals in all
directions at once, so a lot of that power is wasted.
This
new system uses those redundant radio waves - essentially a high-frequency form
of alternating current - by converting them to DC power that can then recharge
the battery.
According
to the scientists behind the invention, it could be incorporated into a US$100
stick-on skin for smartphones, without any impact on the strength of the data
or web connection on the phone itself.
Nikola
Labs, the spin-off company charged with developing the technology, is running a
crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in this month to pay for mass production.
Potentially,
the technology could also be built directly into a smartphone.
"No one can charge a cell phone from the air, but
we can reduce power consumption by retrieving some of those lost
milliwatts,"
one of the team, Robert Lee, said in a press release.
"Think of it as a battery extender rather than a
charger."
The phone needs to be transmitting for it to work though - if you're in airplane mode, it won't work.
The
team estimates that around 97 percent of cell phone signals never reach a
destination and are lost in the ether.
Not
all of those lost signals can be recovered and converted back into energy, but
some of them can, and that could make a significant difference to smartphone
battery life in the near future.
The
technology has grown out of other work being carried out by Chi-Chih Chen,
research associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
His
other projects cover antennas that can be embedded into ordinary clothing, and
radar technology that's able to detect hidden landmines.
We can't wait to see what else is up his sleeve.
David Nield is a freelance
journalist who has been writing about technology, apps, gadgets and the web
since 2002.
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