5 ms·

With Nanogenerators, Cellphone Use Powers Itself

13 points by Parbeyjr 10y ago

legulere 10y ago
You only get tiny amounts of energy out of energy harvesting in general. The press release [1] links to a video that drives a black and white LCD display [2]. You really should look at that video to see what the tech can do. You can't power smartphones with that. Still energy harvesting is pretty interesting for e.g. sensors. There already are zigbee light switches that work through energy harvesting (e.g. [3]) [1]: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2016/flexible-device-captures-energy-from-human-motion/ http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2016/flexible-device-captures-e... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS2thXzbSek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS2thXzbSek [3]: http://www.nxp.com/video/nxp-enocean-energy-harvesting-wireless-switch-at-ces-2014-zigbee-nfc:ENOCEAN-ENERGY-HARVESTING http://www.nxp.com/video/nxp-enocean-energy-harvesting-wirel...
- brudgers 10y ago
  I'd think of as energy recovery more than energy generation. The analogy would be to regenerative braking on an electric vehicle. Thermodynamics still applies, but the device becomes more energy efficient at the macro scale. Here the relationship to energy recovery seems to be that what is displayed on the screen is related to the amount of swiping. I'm not sure it's going to change the world, but I'm not certain it isn't worth pursuing either.
  - legulere 10y ago
    The power generated by this is probably several magnitudes smaller than what a phone uses. What's the use when your phone gets e.g. 0.1% more energy efficient? Regenerative braking makes sense because it's a lot of energy and you can use the motor as a generator.
gubby 10y ago
I find it exceptionally unlikely that the statements in this article are correct. I suspect a phone with the screen lit uses somewhere in the range 0.5-2W continuous. The amount of energy you'd get from a light touch on the screen is, at an educated guess, in the order of a few millijoules at best.
teilo 10y ago
Energy harvesting is essentially heat reclamation. This makes for a trivial smell test for claims such as these: Think about how much heat is generated as you discharge your phone battery. Now imagine how long it would take you to generate that same amount of heat by swiping on your screen. Cars, for instance, generate a LOT of heat when you hit the brakes. This makes them an excellent target for energy reclamation. Now if they can reclaim the heat radiated from a CPU/GPU, that would we worth talking about.

13 points by Parbeyjr 10y ago

You only get tiny amounts of energy out of energy harvesting in general. The press release [1] links to a video that drives a black and white LCD display [2]. You really should look at that video to see what the tech can do. You can't power smartphones with that. Still energy harvesting is pretty interesting for e.g. sensors. There already are zigbee light switches that work through energy harvesting (e.g. [3]) [1]: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2016/flexible-device-captures-energy-from-human-motion/ http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2016/flexible-device-captures-e... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS2thXzbSek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS2thXzbSek [3]: http://www.nxp.com/video/nxp-enocean-energy-harvesting-wireless-switch-at-ces-2014-zigbee-nfc:ENOCEAN-ENERGY-HARVESTING http://www.nxp.com/video/nxp-enocean-energy-harvesting-wirel...

brudgers 10y ago
I'd think of as energy recovery more than energy generation. The analogy would be to regenerative braking on an electric vehicle. Thermodynamics still applies, but the device becomes more energy efficient at the macro scale. Here the relationship to energy recovery seems to be that what is displayed on the screen is related to the amount of swiping. I'm not sure it's going to change the world, but I'm not certain it isn't worth pursuing either.
- legulere 10y ago
  The power generated by this is probably several magnitudes smaller than what a phone uses. What's the use when your phone gets e.g. 0.1% more energy efficient? Regenerative braking makes sense because it's a lot of energy and you can use the motor as a generator.

gubby 10y ago

I find it exceptionally unlikely that the statements in this article are correct. I suspect a phone with the screen lit uses somewhere in the range 0.5-2W continuous. The amount of energy you'd get from a light touch on the screen is, at an educated guess, in the order of a few millijoules at best.

teilo 10y ago

Energy harvesting is essentially heat reclamation. This makes for a trivial smell test for claims such as these: Think about how much heat is generated as you discharge your phone battery. Now imagine how long it would take you to generate that same amount of heat by swiping on your screen. Cars, for instance, generate a LOT of heat when you hit the brakes. This makes them an excellent target for energy reclamation. Now if they can reclaim the heat radiated from a CPU/GPU, that would we worth talking about.