Technology in Development to Recharge Gadget Batteries From Thin Air

We all know how annoying it can be when the mobile technologies that fuel our lives run on empty. Computer scientists at Georgia Tech are now developing technology to power our PCs and iPhones through sunlight, heat, and wind. Boston Globe:

"And now computer scientists at Georgia Tech have invented something that sounds as if it came from the mind of Nikola Tesla. That’s because the prototype gadget, which works with an antenna and other components, made with nanoparticles of silver and other materials on an inkjet printer, can draw energy out of thin air.

The energy the Georgia Tech researchers, including professor Manos Tentzeris (above), are gathering comes from radio and television transmitters and cellphone and satellite networks.

So far, the device is able to gather enough juice to power small sensors and RFID tags. For example, the researchers last week said they had managed to gather enough energy from a TV station a half-kilometer away to power a small temperature sensor."

The early technology is only expected to gather enough ambient-energy to power small sensors and chips, but researchers say it could supplement the juice gathered by solar cells.