© University of Texas Arlington
Hundreds of tiny windmills embedded into phone sleeves could be the future of charging on the move.
Researchers at the University of Texas have developed these miniscule 1.8mm windmills in the hope that they will one day be used to charge mobile phones and other devices.
Made from a flexible nickel alloy, small enough to fit ten of them on a single grain of rice, the researchers believe that they will be able to generate enough energy to power a phone. As one of the creators, J. C. Chiao, explains, “When the phone is out of battery power all you need to do is to put on the sleeve, wave it in the air for a few minutes and you can use the phone again.”
Whether it’s just a load of hot air still remains to be seen, but one Taiwanese firm WinMEMS Technologies Co. has thrown caution to the wind and partnered with the Texan scientists to make the design into a reality.
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