By harvesting light from the surrounding, engineers at UCLA may have found a way to let me use tomorrow's mobile devices longer than I can hope for with today's smartphones or tablets. The process is to include organic photovoltaic cells that will convert a variety of light sources into electricity.
Such a device equipped with this new LCD screen discovered by UCLA can use the device's own LCD light, ambient light, and sunlight to do convert the light into electricity.
When can we expect to see this in our next iPhone or iPad? Heck, I would love to have this on my Macbook.
With the new LCD screen equipped with these photovoltaic cells, we can basically be charging our mobile devices as we use them or as they sit on our desks at work or ride on the bus to and from work.
What we don't know is the power conversion efficiency. But if UCLA engineers said such a screen can convert indoor and ambient light, I think the efficiency should be adequate for use soon.
The study was sponsored in part by Intel. And the UCLA professor, Yang Yang, along with Youssry Boutros, program director at Intel Labs are very optimistic about the new technology. Boutros believed the new screen can capture 75% of the wasted light.
75% Of 75% is a little over 56% efficiency. Frankly, that ain't bad at all. And Yang believe we can see such LCD screens in our mobile tech in the near future.
I don't care if it's just mobile. Well, we are talking about a billion such devices in the world sold each year. Also consider the tens of millions of office LCD screens and HDTV all over the world. How much electricity can we save?
Well, let's just say a lot.
Source: Yahoo News Via UCLA
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