Standby mode is often accused of being the scourge of the planet, insidiously draining resources while offering little benefit other than a small red light and extra convenience for couch potatos. But now Nokia reckons a mobile phone that is always left in standby mode could be just what the environment needs.
A new prototype charging system from the company is able to power itself on nothing more than ambient radiowaves – the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us. The power harvested is small but it is almost enough to power a mobile in standby mode indefinitely without ever needing to plug it into the mains, according to Markku Rouvala, one of the researchers who developed the device at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge, UK.
This may sound too good to be true but Oyster cards used by London commuters perform a similar trick, powering themselves from radiowaves emitted by the reader devices as they are swiped. And similarly old crystal radio sets and more recently modern radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, increasingly used in shipping and as antitheft devices, are powered purely by radiowaves.
The difference with Nokia’s prototype is that instead of harvesting tiny amounts of power (a few microwatts) from dedicated transmitters, Nokia claims it is able to scavenge relatively large amounts of power — around a thousand times as much — from signals coming from miles away. Individually the energy available in each of these signals is miniscule. But by harvesting radiowaves across a wide range of frequencies it all adds up, said Rouvala.
Wonder if I could use this tech to keep my coffee warm.
Maybe a bluetooth headset could be powered from the energy captured by my tinfoil hat.
If they pull that off I woudl be VERY impressed. I can’t even imagine how you would harness a television signal into electricity. Kudos to Nokia
Those wacky, Nokians.
Tesla would be proud if they could pull that off.
It’ll never happen. The PR department just went nuts or over heard two engineers talking about a “wouldn’t it be cool”.
50 microwatts maybe, but 50 miliwatts, we’ll see about that.
There is probably much more ambient energy just sitting around then we know or comprehend. How much can be captured I don’t know but thinking optimistically, I sure hope it is enough to harvest.
We can capture solar radiation already for electricity. And the efficiency grows all the time. Why can’t we also get many more wavelengths tapped?
Somone should invent a cell-phone that is powered entirely by the anger I feel when I see someone make a left turn while chatting on a cell phone.
“Individually the energy available in each of these signals is miniscule. But by harvesting radiowaves across a wide range of frequencies it all adds up.”
That may be work for one phone, but probably won’t for a few hundred thousand competing for that range.
Now, what the hell is going on with the comment box AGAIN?
(#4 -yes, Tesla would indeed be proud.
it’s about friggin time! –it’s all about magnetics, baby!
-lol, sounds like someone is trying to subtly use zero point energy (or prove scalar field theory) without having to worry about Big Oil (and our military) coming in and wiping them off the face of the earth. -Or, alerting the masses at large that “modern science” is in fact, the biggest fraud ever perpetrated in the tiny history of Man.
woohoo!
the magnetic ribbon we are fast approaching is finally letting REAL SCIENCE start to poke through the centuries of deception!
i’ve been waiting for this since the 80’s.. 🙂
-s
A long wire antenna, about 800 feet long, will gain an electrical charge that is adequate to power a cell phone. This is not fiction, so you can regain the energy that is emitted by radio transmitters. A crystal set does it all the time, . I does take energy to drive the headphone speaker cone, and it comes from the radio transmitter.
Well, for a wavelength of 500 kHz, you only need an antenna about 250 ft. long. Still a little long for a cellphone. But it would supply an adequate charge over several hours and handle multiple bandwidths.
#8 for the win
(Closes eyes to type with this funky editor
Actually Chuck, that isn’t a bad idea. As much as I root for someone inventing a power source from ambient radiation, it just isn’t going to be realistically possible due to the energy needs of the devices.
However, something powered by bio-energy would be far more feasible.
I wonder how long it will be before Channel 5 decides to bill you for using their signal to charge your phone!
NOT GOOD!
If this becomes mass-produced, we all will have to pay extra taxes for the “radiowave energy consumption”, you bet!
There have been lawsuits by broadcasters and power companies against folks who do this to supply energy to their homes. Don’t think a cell phone company will be exempt from this.
Very old news….
Popular Electronics, back in the 50’s ran a “Stolen Power Radio” article that essentially described the same thing – a little AM radio with two tuners. One was used to generate some electricity to power the audio stages of the second one.
Seriously primitive device, but it worked. Downside are some serious efficiency issues. I’m not sure if it’d drive more than a one-transistor receiver unless you lived next door to the transmitter….
. ..
#17, I would like to see a link to that as I am curious as to what their argument was.
Wow! A cellphone powered by the strongest rf signal available, its own output, would run forever.
#20, Alphie,
Better to have an ACORN representative than some religious nut peddling their shit.