Vibration-Powered Self-Generating Battery Charges Itself

We’re still a long way from batteries that will never run out of power.  However, the Vibration-Powered Self-Generating Battery, which can produce its own charge after shaking, should make you feel that way for low-consumption electronics.

Designed to replace standard AA and AAA batteries, the self-charging electrical device offers a perfect alternative for battery-powered remotes, small toys and other items that only require small trickles of energy to operate.  Used inside a remote, for instance, shaking  the slab a little should produce enough power to let you turn the TV on or change the channels.  Need to increase the volume? Give it another judder and press – you don’t even have to remove the batteries to do it.

Created by Brother Industries Ltd, the Vibration-Powered Self-Generating Battery houses a 500mF double-layer capacitor and an electromagnetic induction generator.   A little didder will give the capacitor some light amounts of power (up to 180mW), which your electronics can then use to operate.

Since it’s not a real battery, you can’t use the faux AA and AAA shells in anything that needs power all the time, such as clocks.  Plus, the “shake to use once” really does limit the usefulness.  Regardless, this is a great starting point to one potential way for future batteries to do their job.

The Vibration-Powered Self-Generating Battery will be shown from July 21 to 23 at the Techno-Frontier 2010 in Tokyo, Japan.  Brother Industries will be showing it off being used on a TV remote, a lighting equipment remote and a LED flash.

[via Tech On]