Tired of recharging your mobile devices? Your local phone company may become the source for free wireless power.
Wearables and smart mobile devices can make a world of difference in our lives, but you have to keep them charged. Maybe you have to plug them in, maybe you have to change the batteries. In either case, it’s a hassle. What if you could recharge your devices all the time everywhere, for free? That’s a real possibility thanks to research underway at Georgia Tech. They have created an antenna system that can harvest energy from radio waves. And not just any radio waves; it uses emissions from the new 5G cell phone systems. Most solutions of this sort are highly directional, and have to be pointed at the source of the radio waves. The Georgia Tech design can receive power from six different directions at once. Furthermore, it can be created on a flat card about the size of your palm. They are investigating ways to use 3D printing and printed electronics to produce the device. This could be the solution we need to make health tech sensors a “set it and forget it” proposition.