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Science & Technology

Researchers invent battery-free mobile phone

By T.K. Randall
July 11, 2017 · Comment icon 5 comments

A battery-free phone could solve a lot of problems. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 simonwai / Flickr
Boffins at the University of Washington have come up with a way to remove the need for charging entirely.
Mobile phones have now become so ubiquitous that just about everyone has one, but despite the increasingly sophisticated nature of the handsets themselves, one thing continues to remain a major inconvenience - the need to keep your phone's battery charged up.

Now however, a solution to this problem may be right around the corner thanks to a team of researchers in the US who have developed a prototype phone with no battery whatsoever.

The remarkably efficient device uses just 3.5 watts of power which it is able to produce from ambient light and radio signals via a tiny solar cell that is about the size of a grain of rice.
Comprised of basic off-the-shelf components, the battery-free prototype is currently able to transmit a signal to a base station situated around 50ft away which then routes the call through Skype.

"You could imagine in the future that all cell towers or wifi routers could come with our base station technology embedded in it," said study co-author Vamsi Tall.

"And if every house has a wifi router in it, you could get battery-free cellphone coverage everywhere."

Source: Yahoo! News | Comments (5)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by Parsec 7 years ago
So in case of riots or protests it would be way easier fir governments to shut down communications.  Sorry, cynical mode off.    That's actually an interesting technology and quite a logical step, following the "cloud" era. Keep a device with you as "light" as it can be and delegate the heavy processes to the network. 
Comment icon #2 Posted by glorybebe 7 years ago
As I work in the mobility industry, thus really excited me.  So many people are scared their phones could burst into flames.  This technology could blow the lid off the cell phone production BUT, I could see battery producers fighting it
Comment icon #3 Posted by Myster0n 7 years ago
This might be the fight that sees battery tech firm actually coming up with a better solution then 'fast charging' = the fear of loosing business altogether!
Comment icon #4 Posted by Chortle 7 years ago
The limitation of a base station less than 50ft away makes this sound more like a battry-free cordless landline than a mobile phone.
Comment icon #5 Posted by paperdyer 7 years ago
And the race has started.  Let's see who funds this technology first, Apple or Google?  Maybe the technology will advance far enough that batteries will go the way of the dinosaurs and the Edsel. Wouldn't it nice to never have to replace a car battery.  The flashlight in the car would always work. No need for the electric company.  OOPS!  I'm sure now it will never work, by hook or by crook.


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