Press To Power

Press To Power

FUTURE DEVICES MAY NO LONGER need charging. You heard that right. Soon, you no longer need to run to the nearest café to fire up your laptop or go scouring for a power bank in case your smartphone dies down. All you’ll need is your body and some movement.

This exciting future is all thanks to scientists from the University of Buffalo and the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who collaborated to create a miniature metallic tab that can generate electricity from body movements. This tab needs to be attached to the user’s body—say, your finger—and it can start generating electricity from motion. Imagine charging up your device from the slightest bend of your finger or by swiping down on your news feed.

This mechanism harnesses the “triboelectric effect,” which occurs when materials become electrically charged after being rubbed against each other.