Step On It: The Battery That Charges Itself

Obviously, we all love our smartphones. But what's the one thing we don't love about our smartphones, the thing we constantly moan about, over and over, like lazy observational comedians, as we reach for yet another USB cable? That's right – batteries.

It's clearly no barrier to entry for consumers – after all, it's not like smartphones have an adoption problem – but the average battery life of a smartphone is a major problem.

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta want to change that, with the development of a self-charging battery which is able to simultaneously generate and store energy. 

The modified coin-sized lithium-ion battery features a polyvinylidene difluoride film which charges the battery when it any stress is placed on it. By stepping on it, for example. The researchers have demonstrated how the battery could be placed into the sole of a shoe, meaning the battery receives charge with every footstep.

There aren't yet any plans for production, and there are obstacles reamining, but it's a technology which seems perfectly suited to mobile phones. Here's hoping.