Seems we'll have one more reason to bring our smart phones to the bathroom with us, and it won't be to waste time playing Candy Crush. Technorati Top 100 Overall blog GigaOm reports that researchers at University of the West of England have come up with a "microbial fuel cell" that will break down urine and create enough energy to charge up a cell phone to text and surf the Internet.
As though there wasn't reason enough to worry about a wealth of germs on our cell phones.
"So far the microbial fuel power stack that we have developed generates enough power to enable SMS messaging, web browsing and to make a brief phone call," said project team lead Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos (photo, above). "Making a call on a mobile phone takes up the most energy but we will get to the place where we can charge a battery for longer periods. The concept has been tested and it works – it’s now for us to develop and refine the process so that we can develop MFCs to fully charge a battery."
Although the battery was used to power a cell phone, it's likely we're not going to be asked to provide a periodic urine sample in some mysterious port of our latest Samsung or Apple iteration. The fuel cell currently is as big as a car battery, and researchers will likely work on a system hooked up directly to our home's sewage system to provide low volt energy we'll simply plug our devices into overnight.
At least, that's the way I'm going to keep thinking about this...
Image source GoodHousekeeping, GigaOm
via Technology articles at Technorati http://feeds09.technorati.com/~r/tr-technology/~3/S8LeHZv2Y8E/