According to an article in the March issue of “Nature” magazine, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new “beltway” for the battery material, lithium iron phosphate, that could be used to create new batteries that would charge in seconds, and hold more power in a smaller space.
This new method, if it becomes commercially available (possibly in 2-3 years), would allow cell phone batteries to be smaller and charge in 15-20 seconds, according to the article.
If this becomes reality, this would be a big breakthrough for gadgets. Laptop batteries that currently last 45 minutes would last hours. Cell phone and iPod batteries that last a day would last a week or longer.
The new Palm Pre phone slated to come out in June-July of this year has a wireless battery charger. If this technology could be combined with this new MIT battery technology, you could simply charge your cell phone at a Starbucks, while waiting for your coffee, without needing a charger or cables.
Needing to charge gadgets at home might become a thing of the past. Like casette tape, and Standard Def TV, kids in the future will be asking the question, “What’s a charger?”
Next up, the Wi-Fi vibrator, aka The Wi-brator™
Yeah. I saw an article about a light switch that was Wi-Fi connected so that you can gather data on your power consumption. We’re not too far from everything that’s powered to be Wi-Fi enabled.
I wonder if this technology will affect electric car batteries? Imagine a battery-powered car that charges in an hour (or less) instead of overnight, and has a 200-mile range. You could drive three hours, stop for a meal while the car charges, then continue driving.
What a great thing that would be. If they could get the time down to 5-10 minutes for car batteries, that would be a big break through for the auto industry and possibly could bring them back to life.