Saturday, July 17, 2010

New vibration-powered batteries make charging easier than ever

By Kevin Hall | Jul 16, 2010

Brother, a company you may know for its sewing machines, is looking to shake up the battery world quite literally. The company is showing off vibration-powered generators that would allow you to charge your gadgets anywhere just by giving it a good shake.

Called the Vibration-powered Generating Battery (maybe in the future we'll all ask for VGBs instead of Energizers), the batt's fit in any regular ol' AA or AAA slot. Of course, there are already plenty of rechargeable alternatives out there — and most gadgets today just use lithium-ion batteries — though you still need to plug either in if you want to get some juice. With vibration-powered batteries, you'd be able to charge up anywhere, anytime.

Of course, the shaking-to-power ratio is traditionally rather low, so Brother probably won't be changing the world with this tech just yet. For the low-power devices the company envisions using the batteries, however (gadgets the use 100 mW or less, for instance), the batteries could do some real good.

The company is showing off the Vibration-powered Generating Batteries at a trade expo this month. Who knows? Maybe we'll see them on shelves in the near future.

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