You could soon charge your phone by singing to it

By Williams Pelegrin August 15, 2014

researchers created smartphone charged using voice singing into phone — Image used with permission by copyright holder

As things stand now, there are two ways to charge your phone: wired and wireless. What if there was a third way that involved the use of your voice? That’s what researchers at Nokia and at the Queen Mary University of London are currently working on, as reported by Science Alert.

The researchers are currently working on a smartphone prototype that can be recharged by using sound waves. This is accomplished by “nanogenerators” that were designed to react to sound and electricity. With the nanogenerators, researchers discovered that when the smartphone was exposed to sounds like human voices, traffic, and music, it generated five volts of electricity. This is enough to charge a phone.

Related: With uBeam, wireless charging could be as easy as connecting to Wi-Fi

The nanogenerators are based on a four-year-old concept originally proposed by Korean scientists that involved a process known the piezoelectric effect. It details how nanowires from zinc oxide would be able to produce an electrical current, so long as they experienced mechanical stress, such as bending, stretching, and squashing.

It’s a concept that has a member of the team, engineer Joe Briscoe, very excited. “Being able to keep mobile devices working for longer, or do away with batteries completely by tapping into the stray energy that is all around us is an exciting concept,” said Briscoe in a press release. “We hope that we have brought this technology closer to viability.”

Related: Temporary tattoos powered by sweat may one day charge your smartphone

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

Mobile

The best Android phones in 2024: the 15 best ones you can buy

The OnePlus 12 and Pixel 8's screens.

Finding a bad Android phone is a rare occurrence these days. However, with so many options available, it can be daunting to choose the best one in 2024. In this article, we aim to help you find the Android phone you're looking for.

When looking to buy a new Android phone, there are many factors to consider. Do you prefer a large screen? How important is camera performance to you? Are you someone who enjoys gaming on your phone? Or do you need long-lasting battery life? To assist you, we have compiled a list of Android phones that cater to everyone's needs.

Mobile

2 reasons why you shouldn’t buy a Motorola phone in 2024

Someone holding the Moto G Power 5G (2024) and Moto G Stylus 5G (2024).

A few years ago, buying a Moto G phone was the thing to do if you wanted a quality Android phone on a budget. Starting with the first Moto G from 2013, it's a product line with a lot of history. Much of it is good, but in more recent years, there's been some bad, too.

Motorola's approach to the Moto G has been worrisome, especially in 2024. By March, the company had already announced and released three new Moto G models, none of which were particularly good. From low-quality displays, poor performance, bad cameras, and more, it felt like Motorola had lost its budget phone mojo.

Mobile

Google is making it easier to ditch your iPhone for an Android phone

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and iPhone 15 Pro in hand.

Switching phones is never a smooth process, even if you’re switching between two different Android phones. However, when you’re trying to switch from an iPhone to Android or vice versa, it can be extra complicated -- and you can lose data and apps that you rely on. This is especially the case with Apple-to-Android transfers because the iPhone has a much stronger ecosystem lock-in with things like iMessage, iCloud backups, and exclusive apps like Overcast and Hyperlapse.

The good news is that with its Data Transfer Tool (also called Pixel Migrate on Pixel devices), Google may be trying to mitigate some of the phone-switching problems that arise -- specifically, losing access to your Live Photos. According to an APK teardown from Android Authority, Google’s Data Transfer Tool will finally resolve the problem of migrating iOS Live Photos to Android. It will do this by converting them over as Motion Photos.