Smartphone Battery That Lasts A Whole Week? 'Smart Screen' Breakthrough Could Make It a Possibility Soon
There may soon come a day when smartphone users can go days - even weeks - without having to recharge their devices. The breakthrough technology that could extend smartphone battery life and make this possible is a "smart screen" created by Bodle Technologies, a spin-out from Oxford University.
Smartphone screens are major battery drains, which is why most smartphones have a setting that automatically dims the screen and/or a power-saving mode that automatically shuts off the display when the device has not been used for a certain length of time. But when a smartphone is used out in the sun, there's no choice but to turn the brightness back up. This uses up battery life and makes daily recharging a necessity.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Dr. Peiman Hosseini, an electronic engineer and the founder of Bodle Technologies, may have the perfect solution. His company has developed a new type of display using phase-change material, an innovation that uses electrical pulses that cause nano-pixels to turn on and off, creating vivid, high-resolution displays. This "smart display" requires practically zero power and can be viewed clearly even under bright sunlight.
Smartphones and tablets aren't the only products that could benefit from this technology. "We can create an entire new market," Dr. Hosseini told the Telegraph. He added: "You have to charge smartwatches every night, which is slowing adoption. But if you had a smartwatch or smart glass that didn't need much power, you could recharge it just once a week."
The "smart screen" can also be used to produce "smart windows" that can block infrared waves and keep interiors cool without having to rely on air conditioning. The smart window market will reportedly be worth $2 billion by 2017.
According to Dr. Hosseini, Bodle Technologies is already in talks with several of the world's largest electronics corporations. He also reported that the company has secured a "significant" amount from the Oxford Sciences Innovation fund as seed finance and that they expect to produce prototypes of the new display through a low-cost manufacturing process within a year.
