Power Bits
You’ve probably heard of printed batteries—or at least charge-storing devices that can be printed with a commercial inkjet printer. But how about paper batteries?
A group out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York has developed a battery on a flexible “PowerWrapper.” They’ve also started a company known as—surprise—The Paper Battery Co. Our guess is they didn’t have to look around much to see who else was using that name. Disbelievers can watch the video.
There also are some interesting developments on the battery charging side. Green Plug has developed a connector that can deliver multiple voltages to charge devices intelligently, as opposed to one unique charger per device. The strategy should get rid of a wall of chargers for most families, where you have to try to figure out which charger connects to your phone and which one connects to those of your family members. It even can shut off when the device is fully juiced.
Finally, there’s a little device called the YoGen, which has a pull cord (click on the arrow to the right of the photo) for charging a cell phone battery, or any other mobile device battery. It’s like a miniature version of the pull cord on a lawn mower, except you don’t have to cut the grass afterward. You can just talk about it. In fact, you can keep talking until your minutes run out and your money runs out and…well…this can get very ugly from here.
–Ed Sperling
Tags: Paper Battery, printed battery, Rensselaer