Right now, electromagnetic signals are probably bouncing around the room between your phone, laptop, and other internet-connected devices.
For researchers looking for ways to power small, flexible wearables or medical devices, these Wi-Fi signals are a promising alternative to batteries — thanks to a new device that can pick up Wi-Fi and convert it to useable electricity.
The technology to build these devices, called rectennas, has been around for some time. But this is the first time that a flexible rectenna can generate a practical amount of electricity, according to research published Monday in the journal Nature.
Most importantly, the new rectennas are the first that are cost-effective to manufacture at a large scale and the first that can pick up Wi-Fi signals at high enough frequencies to actually power devices, like LEDs or a small device’s circuitry, say the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers who invented them.
This is a Syndicate News Feed.