Invention Makes Cellphones 12x More Power Efficient

Dennis Faas's picture

Tired of reaching for that cellphone, only to find that your ensuing conversation is cut off because of a dying battery?

Almost everyone knows the sinking feeling that accompanies a suddenly dead cellphone battery; in fact, consumers have been demanding a more efficient, longer-lasting device for ages. That might be on its way, thanks to the work of a doctoral student from Canada's national capital.

PhD candidate Atif Shamim, an engineering student at Ottawa, Ontario's Carleton University, has reportedly built a technology capable of reducing the overall power consumption of mobile devices like cellphones by as much as twelve times. By making electronics more efficient, Shamim may have solved man's constant pursuit of a longer lasting handheld device.

So, what has he done?

Shamim's technology is obviously very complicated, but in simple terms it allows electrical circuits in a device to bypass internal wiring and interact with a cellphone's antenna wirelessly. Despite the prominence of wireless technology in corporate offices and even the average home, this strategy has yet to be fully explored. (Source: teleclick.ca)

"This has not been tried before -- that the circuits are connected to the antenna wirelessly." Shamim proudly boasted. "They've been connected through wires and a bunch of other components. That's where the power gets lost."

Shamim and others hope to see the idea implemented in a variety of future multimedia devices, particularly smartphones. Some industry insiders are already whispering that Apple should take notice immediately, considering the many criticisms lodged against the low battery life of its Apple iPhone. Shamim attributes this to the iPhone's many functions: "It's a common problem. There are so many applications in the iPhone, it's like a power-sucking machine." (Source: intomobile.com)

The finer details on Shamim's invention can be found in .pdf form here.

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