Charging with ambient sound
Researchers Say They Can Charge a Phone With Ambient Sound BY SAMANTHA MURPHY KELLY2 A new smartphone prototype can be charged by ambient sound, such as cheers from a football field or chatter from a coffee shop — though don't expect to cut your charging cable anytime soon. Scientists from Queen Mary University of London and researchers at Nokia built a mobile device that can be refueled when everyday background noise, including traffic and music, is converted into electricity. When Joe Briscoe and Steve Dunn of Queen Mary studied how playing fast-tempo pop and rock music stimulated and improved the performance of solar cells, the team wanted to create a device that could take motion energy and turn it into electricity. "Charging by sound and vibrations could help improve the usability of electronic devices and allow them to work for longer, without worrying about connecting to a charger," Briscoe told Mashable on Thursday. "It would also be helpful to the envi...