Talk-Powered Cell Phones Won't Need Batteries

alphadogg writes "It's possible that in the future conversations on your cell phone could generate enough electrical power to run the phone, without batteries. That's one possible outcome of recent work by a team of Texas researchers, who appear to have discovered that by building a certain type of piezoelectric material to a specific thickness (about 21 nanometers, compared to a typical human hair of 100,000 nanometers), you can boost its energy production by 100 percent. And the technology could power not just phones, but a whole range of low-power mobile devices and sensors. The breakthrough is an example of 'energy harvesting' that can convert one kind of energy, such as vibrations or solar rays, into electricity."

New idea, meet old idea?

[damn_registrars]

I seem to recall a time years ago that a PC manufacturer (perhaps Compaq?) claimed to have developed a keyboard that could recharge a laptop battery by the kinetic energy of the key movement.

Yet for some reason we don't all have those...

Of course, very few people do much typing on their laptops now, but there are some people who presumably could have found it quite useful.

Re:If you can get the power down

[rolfwind]

I don't talk enough on the phone to power it for standby. But what about one powered by motion, much like an automatic watch? Does it generate enough power?

I personally hate batteries, at least the current technology. Perhaps ultra-capacitors one day...

Re:If you can get the power down

[hedwards]

Because I rarely talk on my phone more than 10 minutes during the course of a month. And I still like to be able to receive calls on a random basis. Voice powered calling is worthless for people that spend that kind of time carrying the phone around rather than talking on it.

A much better solution would be to put something in that converts the jostling motion that handhelds are constantly subjected to into power. Sort of like the old self winding watches.

Re:Isn't this fairly common already

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Hmm, what sort of consequences?

Moderations often affect the tone of a message. A misplaced 'Insightful' mod can turn a joke into perceived ignorance. That can lead to negative moderations and a flood of comments trying to dispute it. It's not the most common thing in the world, but I've seen it happen several times.

That's not to say I'm against the idea of a funny comment being modded informative. I do, however, have a preference that people don't use Insightful mods solely to give funny comments karma. And yes, I've softened my stance a bit. Heh.