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posted by janrinok on Tuesday December 13 2016, @08:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the stepping-up-the-power dept.

Touchscreens have become a ubiquitous feature of modern life for people around the world. Millions of smartphones have been poked, prodded, and swiped, running down batteries constantly.

But researchers at Michigan State University have created a new kind of electric generator that could one day store the energy from touching and swiping a smartphone that may one day be used to help charge smartphones using nothing but day-to-day human motion.

The device is known as a biocompatible ferroelectret nanogenerator, or FENG. Using relatively low-cost and environmentally-friendly materials, FENG converts the energy from touching or pressing it into electricity. While similar devices powered by motion already exist, this one is thin, foldable, and relatively cheap to produce, creating a means of generating electricity that could use the energy from touch to power smartphone screens in the near future.


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  • (Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday December 13 2016, @09:57PM

    by arslan (3462) on Tuesday December 13 2016, @09:57PM (#441028)

    Umm... is that really the equation for Energy or is it Work? Also, they mention converting mechanical energy which would indicate it that it includes potential and kinetic energy..

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