Germans aim to build laptop powered by body heat

Face it, batteries just aren't very reliable, I type with gritted teeth as I spy the rapidly dwindling battery power indicator on my MacBook. And, as we learned recently, lithium-ion batteries have a tendency to overheat, triggering expensive recalls from Nokia and Sony in the past year. Perhaps the researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, the same group that brought us the MP3 audio format, have found a solution: a new method of drawing electrical current from our body heat that could some day power laptops, mobile phones and gadgets.

According to DailyTech, Fraunhofer technicians have found a way to convert body heat into an electric current. They did so by adapting the principle of a thermoelectric generator, which generates electricity from the differences in temperature of a hot and cold environment, DailyTech reports. It's not a lot of electricity: it's measured in millivolts, too small for most modern electronic gadgets. But the Fraunhofer crew has set off working on circuits that can operate with such a small voltage output, making the promise of human-powered machines a possibility. Peter Spies, manager of the project told DailyTech: “This has enabled us to build entire electronic systems that do not require an internal battery, but draw their energy from body heat alone.”

Comments

[Technology]

really?! everybody should read this article so that they will be aware!