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15th March, 2010, 06:27 AM
The phone manufacturer's concept would harness the energy created as a person moves around, through the use of piezoelectric crystals
div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited { color:#06c; } You?re at work, on holiday, or halfway through a vital conversation about last night?s television. Suddenly, you realise the phone?s battery is about to run out. It?s a very modern disaster, but one that could soon be at an end.
Nokia, the mobile phone makers, are developing a self-charging phone that will use the kinetic energy created when a person moves around to ensure that the mobile never runs out of juice.
The plan is revealed in a patent application seen by The Times and filed with US authorities. The new device could power a phone, but the concept could transfer on to any portable electronic device - such as a music player, medical equipment or games console - and so could do away with the need for batteries and chargers altogether.
The machine would work through the use of piezoelectric crystals, a substance that creates an electric current when bent or compressed, for example in the igniter of a cigarette lighter or in a gas oven.
In the past, making highly-efficient crystals that could be used within a gadget such as a phone was impossible, as they would have to be created at high temperatures that would destroy most materials, like plastic or rubber. But recent developments, including work by scientists at Princeton University that would allow piezoelectric crystals to be ?printed? on to a flexible, rubber-like material, means they may soon be used in portable devices.
In Nokia?s proposed design, the heavier components of a phone, such as the radio aerial and battery, are supported on a strong frame. This frame can move alongside two sets of rails. One rail allows the frame to move up and down, the other from side to side.
Strips of piezoelectric crystals would sit at the end of each rail. They would create an electric current when hit and compressed by the frame. So when a person gets up, walks across a room or in any way moves the phone, the movements would create electricity. The energy created would charge up a capacitor that would in turn charge up a battery, keeping it topped up constantly.
Nokia would not reveal when such a device would appear on the market. A spokesman for the Finnish firm said: ?Power management has been an important topic since the early days of mobile communications and so continues to be one of the areas for research, but we cannot comment on whether or when inventions described in patent applications may eventually appear in products.?
Scientists say that the human body is a living dynamo that is badly utilised. For example, if a person walked quickly down a street, as their feet hit the ground, they could create around 70 watts of energy. That is usually more than enough to light a bulb or even run some computer screens.
Piezoelectric crystals are thought to be a good way of harvesting energy created by a person?s body movements. The Princeton scientists said in the journal Nano Letters that the best way to use their crystals that can be stored on a flexible material would be to place them in shoes, which they believe would produce enough power to keep an iPod charged. Nokia?s researchers have taken this further by finding a way to utilise them within a phone or gadget itself.
Others have tried to find ways to take advantage of kinetic energy in order to charge devices. Two designers, Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee, have come up with the idea for a spinning battery. The battery would be built with a hole in one end, through which you can put a finger. When a phone is low on power, it would be recharged simply by twirling it around that finger.
However, even the designers admit this method would not create much energy, with 30 twirls generating enough power for two minutes of talk time, or 25 minutes on stand-by.
div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited { color:#06c; } You?re at work, on holiday, or halfway through a vital conversation about last night?s television. Suddenly, you realise the phone?s battery is about to run out. It?s a very modern disaster, but one that could soon be at an end.
Nokia, the mobile phone makers, are developing a self-charging phone that will use the kinetic energy created when a person moves around to ensure that the mobile never runs out of juice.
The plan is revealed in a patent application seen by The Times and filed with US authorities. The new device could power a phone, but the concept could transfer on to any portable electronic device - such as a music player, medical equipment or games console - and so could do away with the need for batteries and chargers altogether.
The machine would work through the use of piezoelectric crystals, a substance that creates an electric current when bent or compressed, for example in the igniter of a cigarette lighter or in a gas oven.
In the past, making highly-efficient crystals that could be used within a gadget such as a phone was impossible, as they would have to be created at high temperatures that would destroy most materials, like plastic or rubber. But recent developments, including work by scientists at Princeton University that would allow piezoelectric crystals to be ?printed? on to a flexible, rubber-like material, means they may soon be used in portable devices.
In Nokia?s proposed design, the heavier components of a phone, such as the radio aerial and battery, are supported on a strong frame. This frame can move alongside two sets of rails. One rail allows the frame to move up and down, the other from side to side.
Strips of piezoelectric crystals would sit at the end of each rail. They would create an electric current when hit and compressed by the frame. So when a person gets up, walks across a room or in any way moves the phone, the movements would create electricity. The energy created would charge up a capacitor that would in turn charge up a battery, keeping it topped up constantly.
Nokia would not reveal when such a device would appear on the market. A spokesman for the Finnish firm said: ?Power management has been an important topic since the early days of mobile communications and so continues to be one of the areas for research, but we cannot comment on whether or when inventions described in patent applications may eventually appear in products.?
Scientists say that the human body is a living dynamo that is badly utilised. For example, if a person walked quickly down a street, as their feet hit the ground, they could create around 70 watts of energy. That is usually more than enough to light a bulb or even run some computer screens.
Piezoelectric crystals are thought to be a good way of harvesting energy created by a person?s body movements. The Princeton scientists said in the journal Nano Letters that the best way to use their crystals that can be stored on a flexible material would be to place them in shoes, which they believe would produce enough power to keep an iPod charged. Nokia?s researchers have taken this further by finding a way to utilise them within a phone or gadget itself.
Others have tried to find ways to take advantage of kinetic energy in order to charge devices. Two designers, Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee, have come up with the idea for a spinning battery. The battery would be built with a hole in one end, through which you can put a finger. When a phone is low on power, it would be recharged simply by twirling it around that finger.
However, even the designers admit this method would not create much energy, with 30 twirls generating enough power for two minutes of talk time, or 25 minutes on stand-by.