Be Ready To Call From First Battery Free Phone Part 1

Be Ready To Call From First Battery Free Phone Part 1

Have you ever imagined a phone that does not have a battery? Thoughts might come that with no battery to charge, using that phone would save electricity but what power a phone without a battery?

In the near future, such a phone is a possibility. In this two-part series, we will explore that possibility.

Researchers at the University of Washington have invented the cell phone that requires no batteries. According to them, the time has come to move beyond chargers, cords and dying phones. This new technology enables the phone to harvest the few microwatts of power that it requires from either light or ambient radio signals.

Prototype demonstration:

Demonstrating their prototype, the team made Skype calls using this battery-free phone. They made this prototype from commercial, off-the-shelf components that can receive and transmit speech. These components are also capable of communicating with a base station.

Testing the prototype:

On 1 JULY 2017, ShyamGollakota, an associate professor at Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, co-authored a paper in the Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable, and Ubiquitous Technologies.

“We’ve built what we believe is the first functioning cell phone that consumes almost zero power. To achieve the really, really low power consumption that you need to run a phone by harvesting energy from the environment, we had to fundamentally rethink how these devices are designed.”

A team of computer scientists and electrical engineers have ushered a unique change in the world of modern cellular transmissions. They have converted analog signals conveying sound into digital data for a phone to understand.

The team did not design any specific gadgets to demonstrate. But rather used available and limited components on a printed circuit board, in order to demonstrate that the prototype could perform basic phone functions like making and receiving the call. They demonstrated the transmission of speech and data and receiving user input via buttons. Using Skype, research team members received incoming calls and dialed out numbers. They also placed callers on hold with the battery-free phone.

Joshua Smith, the professor in both the Allen School as well as UW’s Department of Electrical Engineering, said:

“The cell phone is the device we depend on most today. So if there were one device you’d want to be able to use without batteries, it is the cell phone. The proof of concept we’ve developed is exciting today, and we think it could impact everyday devices in the future.”

It is remarkable to see that how a team of scientists and researchers achieved in the quest which was about quenching their thirst for knowledge. In the next part of this series, we will explore how this battery-less phone works.

What do you think about the battery-free phone and what are your expectations regarding its functioning? Share with us by posting your comments.

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