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Power Talk: mobile phones could soon be charged by voice
by Jaspreet Virk - May 9, 2011 - comments
The technique uses sound to transform it into energy to power a mobile phone. It can even turn background noise, or music into energy to charge phone and personal music players.
Mobile phone battery dead and unable to find a charger? Well, this will soon became a thing of the past as researchers have devised a way to charge phones simply with sound.
The electrical engineers from South Korea have developed a technique that allows mobile phone users to charge their phone while the conversation is in progress.
In fact, higher the volume, greater is the charge.
The invention comes as a blessing to those who often talk their phones to death.
Working mechanism
Just as speakers turn electric signals into sound, this technology changes sound into electric power.
The technique uses sound to transform it into energy to power a mobile phone. It can even turn background noise, or music into energy to charge phone and personal music players.
Dr Sang-Woo Kim of Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University, stated, “A number of approaches for scavenging energy from environments have been intensively explored. The sound that always exists in our everyday life and environments has been overlooked as a source.
“This motivated us to realize power generation by turning sound energy from speech, music or noise into electrical power.”
The South Korean scientists are not the only ones working on such an idea. Scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a chip that uses body movements to generate power and charge electric devices like iPad.
Project in infancy
The South Korean scientists have developed a prototype that has tiny strings of zinc oxide placed between two electrodes.
When the sound hits the sound-absorbing pad, it vibrates, leading the zinc oxide wires to compress, thus releasing electric current, and charging battery.
The prototype has been able to transform sound 100 decibels, equivalent to traffic noise, into around 50 millivolts of electricity.
As this power is not enough to fully charge a mobile phone, the scientists are looking to change the material of the strands to produce more power from lower level of sound.
But the current energy level can be used to charge low power consumption devices like “self-powered sensors and body-implantable tiny devices,” stated Kim.
The South Korean scientists are not the only one working on such an idea. Scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a chip that uses body movements to generate power and charge electric devices like iPad.