Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Future Cell Phones Could Pull Electricity Out of Thin Air

by Terrence O'Brien on June 11, 2009 at 09:30 AM

Furture Cell Phones Could Pull Electricity Out of Thin Air
Imagine a world where plugging in your gadgets to charge them is a thing of the past. And we're not talking about "wireless" chargers, like the Palm Pre's Touchstone, which still require some sort of physical contact. No, according to Technology Review, Nokia is working on technology that would collect ambient electromagnetic radiation to slowly charge batteries.

Ambient electromagnetic radiation is given off in the form of radio waves by things like Wi-Fi routers and cell phone towers. Nokia has created a prototype device that collects these radio waves and converts them to electrical current. Current prototypes can glean between 3 to 5 milliwatts from the air, but the company believes it's only three or four years away from a commercially viable prototype that could collect 50 milliwatts. If Nokia could reach that milestone, the phone, when not in use, could be charged (albeit slowly) by a nearby TV or cell tower.

According to Steve Beeby, an engineer and physicist at the University of Southampton, U.K. who has researched the same technology, MP3 players only use about 100 milliwatts and spend the vast majority of their time in even lower power modes. That being said, such an innovation could have applications beyond that of a cell phone.

We're excited about a future where gadgets power themselves by literally pulling electricity out of the air, but we're not holding our collective breath, either. This could wind up being yet another technological marvel that never makes it off the laboratory's drawing board. [From: Technology Review]

Tags: ambient electromagnetic radiation, AmbientElectromagneticRadiation, battery, cell phone, CellPhone, charging, research, technology, top

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular