Forget a bulky extra battery case; new technology smaller than a penny can now recharge your mobile devices.
Actually – think even smaller – more like the thickness of a penny. Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington created a miniature windmill that is just 1.8 millimeters at its widest point.
These ultra-tiny windmills are designed with a micro-generator that can recharge your phone or tablet as long as you have access to a little fresh air.
One of the micro windmills pictured on the face of a penny. Researchers say hundreds of the micro electrical mechanical systems could be inserted into the sleeve of a phone and recharge the device. (Credit: WinMEMSTechnologies)
A single grain of rice could hold about 10 of the tiny devices, and the researchers believe hundreds of them could be embedded in a cell phone sleeve for recharging purposes, Computerworld reports.
Once the sleeve is on the phone, a user could simply wave the device in the air or set the phone in a windy place to get the tiny propeller blades turning, allowing the micro-generators to produce electricity.
And just imagine the gag gift possibilities, for your favorite co-worker who has hot air to spare.
Smitha Rao, a UT research associate, and J.-C. Chiao, an electrical engineering professor, co-designed the miniature windmills. The two have filed for a patent for the devices which were tested successfully in September 2013 in Chiao’s lab. The windmills operate under strong artificial winds without any fracture in the material because of the durable nickel alloy and the aerodynamic design.
The micro-windmills can be made in an array using batch processes. The fabrication cost of making one device is the same as making hundreds or thousands on a single wafer, which enables for mass production of very inexpensive systems.
“Imagine that they can be cheaply made on the surfaces of portable electronics,” Chiao said, “so you can place them on a sleeve for your smart phone. When the phone is out of battery power, all you need to do is to put on the sleeve, wave the phone in the air for a few minutes and you can use the phone again.”
WinMEMSTechnologies, a Taiwanese electro-mechanical fabrication company, has agreed to commercialize the micro-windmill technology.
(H/T: Computerworld)
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Publius Duo
Just curious, how much energy does one of these things actually produce? Microvolts?
SocialistSlayer
Why not use a solar charger like the ones on calculators? They work off the light in a indoor room !
YesLiberalsAreThatDumb
Calculators are very low power. Cell phones, especially smart phones, use many times more energy.
Tom K
@ SocialistSlayer: Will the new Government Mandated / Poisonous Mercury lights produce enough UV light to charge a pocket calculator ?
DadRocked
OH NO and BEWARE!
Free Enterprise At Work
Shame
jolie
Can you blow on it awhile? Or why not add a HAND CHARGER. Charge by turning with your hand.
The-Monk
Finally, a windmill that won’t kill birds and bats. Looks so fragile that an array of them would damage easily.
I can make a battery with a quarter, a nickel, a piece of paper and some spit that will put out more volts than one of those things. Won’t charge a phone but comes in handy at times.
YesLiberalsAreThatDumb
Very cool Monk. Is the paper used to separate the nickel and quarter? With a little spit on it to help conductance?
The difference is they can get mega-grants with wind power, funded by we the taxpayers.
The-Monk
Yep, using a piece of Bounty paper towel I get about 0.6 VDC. Using some strong salt water I get more. Give it a try. Just use 2 different coins as the metals have to be different.
This is why you should use distilled water in any vehicle’s radiator. The different metals turn it into a battery and causes corrosion.
steelpanther
I was thinking that people would likely break them off. Wonder if they would hurt if it was done by bumping them.
The-Monk
SteelPanther,
Imagine what the dust in the real World environment will do to them…
Navyguy62
There is still an issue…
Just imagine all of those innocent gnats and mosquitos who will be buzz-sawed if this technology takes off!
Oh, the humanity!
Gorp
Can you imagine in a strong wind one of those propellers flying off? It could put an eye out. Worse than running with Scissors. My mom used to warn me about that.
YesLiberalsAreThatDumb
Probably micro-watts. You have to have 5 volts to charge a cell phone.
I doubt this will be as useful as claimed.
1FreeVoice
Wave it in the air for “a few minutes” How long will you stand around flapping that thing hoping to get a charge on it soon? A sleeve for your smartphone that is not attached to it all the time will get left behind just when you need it, right? Looking at how things get used in the real world as opposed to the lab, I don’t see a future in this.
Xiccarph
Just don’t set it outdoors when the dandelion seeds, cottonwood or similar seeds are floating along. Oh, avoid those times when the gnats are really bad! Do they include instructions on how to clean these micro-windmill infested covers *without* breaking the windmills once they become gummed up with the above floating/flying item, or when you drop your charging phone onto a nice frosted cake or it falls off its wind-catching spot into a mud puddle? Not a big deal if these chargers will cost $0.99 each at a Dollar Store….
starchy
I would have to imagine the parts would be protected and have an air inlet on 1 side and an exhaust on the other side to protect the parts. This would also give some direction to the device if you would simply blow through it. I know I have spent quite a bit of time blowing up air mattresses before going to sleep at night, don’t see why I wouldn’t blow into this thing as a last resort to charge a phone if necessary. Not sure why it would be necessary, though, always seem to have plenty of AC outlets (or USB ports) around for charging.
G-WHIZ
“PICO-WATTS/.00001″ …especially if the phone is in you pocket the vast-majority of time…. or how’bout that waterproof case!! It’s just like the light-charged-wristwatch—-under your sleeve 95%dark.
GoodStuff
This is dumb
DEFCON4
test……http/nationalreport.net/colorado-pot-shop-accept-food-stamps-taxpayer…
DEFCON4
nationalreport.net/colorado-pot-shop-accept-food-stamps-taxpayer…
Gorp
Try this: http://tinyurl.com/qdxpcdj
dbarrym
Sorry, Defcon 4, but this is not true – this is from a satire site, meant as a social commentary for sure…but not at all true.
If you go to the source, their disclaimer page has the following text:
*DISCLAIMER: National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental . The views expressed by writers on this site are theirs alone and are not reflective of the fine journalistic and editorial integrity of National Report.
travlman77
They can’t even get the big ones to work effectively.
And God help us when the fleas start flying into them and dying PETA will be all over them!!
ArchAngel_Michael
Save the Fleas! It’s a breeze.
does-it-matter
….nice connection 77…..
firman
So I can flip someone off out the car window and charge my phone at the same time? Awesome!
The-Monk
Chuck Norris’s cell phone is too scared to lose a charge. : )
firman
Well that explains why I’ve never charged mine. Thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFJeaAq5Mv4
boz0
Chuck Noris uses mental telepathy to communicat, no phone required.
piemann
chuck is too cool for a cell phone
P8riot
Once a cobra bit Chuck Norris’ leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
Vandy55
Looks like you smash them easily also in your pocket, good luck on keeping them intact.
Dr Vel
Vandy55 “Looks like you smash them easily also in your pocket, good luck on keeping them intact.”
Carbon nanotube structures, graphene screen shields stronger than steel. You are so behind the technological times.
Vandy55
Very glad you know what they are made of, yeh im no doctor or physicist, and am glad you are so smart so you can use the technology to save my sorry stupid life pal!
Jayms
Even if you encase it, it looks like dust will clog them up good. Dust gets in everything.
Grimas
Dust gets in everything? All I know is smoke gets in my eyes.
bumfuzeled
Love stories re-posted from the Onion
YesLiberalsAreThatDumb
“…wave it in the air a few minutes…”
A few is 3 or more. I am guessing more like 2354 minutes to fully charge.
This looks more like a hoax.
piemann
so we can make them this small and they work.
so why cant they make some a little bigger and put them on my roof? or on an electric car so it charges itself as it goes down the road?
it really bothers me the stuff we can come up with and then we dont?
Grimas
“it really bothers me the stuff we can come up with and then we dont?”
Well said.
Tigress1
It would infuriate the utility companies.
KngLamoni
Due to the laws of Physics, you can’t generate energy out of nothing. Also, whenever energy converts from one form to another, there is energy loss usually in the form of heat. Therefore, you would end up losing a lot more energy due to wind resistance than you would gain from the wind power. With that said, it would be cool if these could lie flat while you were driving down the road and then stand on end when you were parked.
It still all comes down to costs though. A roof full of windmills that could lie flat may cost more as an add-on than it would save in 20 years. Electricity is already pretty cheap.
Tom K
This is just great. Not only will we have to deal with oblivious cell phone users walking aimlessly into your path while talking / texting – they will be waving their phone about in an antique shop, breaking valuable mercandise, trying to generate a quick charge !
Anonymous T. Irrelevant
I cannot imagine they would produce enough current for the phone to last very long.
Normal-sized windmills don’t produce enough power to be economically feasible.
Fonebone
Aww, now we’re going to have a spate of dead miniature birds!
matt_c
These things will probably be vilified by PETA for slaughtering endangered airborne microbes.
Gary S
Forget the so-called “smart phones. I have a sonim brand phone, designed for the construction trades, that needs recharging only every 3 – 4 weeks!
1FreeVoice
I don’t use a smart phone, long battery life sounds great to me!
I may look into the sonim brand later… any model recommendations?
disabledcovetern
I always said they would find a way to harness the power of farts now just point your but at one of these little windmill arays and let’er rip… free power from last nights burrito…. it’ll be great.. and probably totally useless like the rest of this free energy crap that the government finds ways to screw up and regulate…. I could have a house totally off the grid with about $10,000 and some time but noooooooo the state requires that you still pay a $40 per month fee to the utilities companies and then extra taxes on your equipment then inspections on a regular basis.. its all crap
iceblast
One the size of your car should power your house then. Unending power…..
Charleym1
Why not make a charger that works on motion like the no windup watches they’ve made for decades? It just stays on the phone when not in use. Probably no new patents to sell the rights to.
Paul -Indiana
This ‘flea-killer-windmill’ would gum up in normal sweat. Is the inventor the same person who thought of Drone delivery from Amazon?
less-gun-control-ban-gun-free-zones
At some point in the near future, it should be within reason to say that politics will have nothing do with basic housing, food and water, as the technology progresses to the point where the old ways of thinking will simply be retired when they are proven obsolete?
Older people will figure this stuff out, out of self preservation?
This post is in intended as a public service.
HigherRoad
If the power thing doesn’t work out, they would make great mosquito WMD’s.
dnewton
How do you clean the pine pollen off of the blades? This is BS. There is no free lunch when it comes to energy. By making the blades small, you reduce its ability to collect energy. I suppose the voltage problem could be overcome with capacitors but the watt-hour production is still going to be proportional to the kinetic energy of the wind running through the blades. Somebody is going to have to show me that the energy conversion efficiency is way more than thirty percent. What protects the blades from damage? This just looks to be too delicate. Somebody is going to be holding these things out a window at 70 MPH. This is a typical windmill report. They never tell you about the inefficiency of wind power production. They never tell you about the losses in distribution, though in this case those losses should be low.
tharpdevenport
Assuming this isn’t a hoax story, I can just imagine the gilarity that ensues now.
Watching groups of teenagers blowing on their phones in mass unison ’cause they don’t want to go outside and experience reality. Sounding like a room full of fat people after having walked through WalMart for a few minutes.
And we’ll be furthering the youth’s ignorance over batteries. Unless there has been some major revolution in common cellphone batteries that escape me, you have to ru na battery down and THEN re-charge it. It you start re-charging it all the time just to keep it up, which is what hese kids will do, the battery’s life expectancy goes down and soon a charge doesn’t last as long.
I’ve got a better idea: how about they plug their phones in, then go do something with their lives. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?