Finally the end of the smartphones without batteries ? Researchers at the University of Washington have developed the first phone capable of receiving and making calls without battery, reveals the blog New technologies.
The device is presented as a simple printed circuit board, on which scientists have added commercially available components. Instead of being converted to data using an analog converter, the voice is transformed into a radio signal, much like a walkie-talkie, which makes it much less energy intensive.
The only disadvantage is that the user must press a button to toggle between the conversation and listening modes.
The phone is so little energy-hungry that it needs only to recover the power of its surroundings, either from ambient radio signals, by means of an antenna or from ambient light, collected by a solar cell of The size of a rice. The unit consumes only 3.5 microwatts during use.
Using this new toy, researchers, partly funded by Google, were also able to chat on Skype. For now, this prototype requires a "base station" to make and receive calls. But tomorrow, they hope to integrate it into a standard mobile network. Rather promising.
