French startup Wysips has quite possibly invented an actual game-changer for the battery-related world: A film that when covering the screen or a mobile phone, gathers light energy–that is, not just solar energy–and uses said energy to charge the device. The transparent photovoltaic film captures light energy, covers the screen of a device and drips 250mW of power into said device for a full charge that currently takes an average phone about six hours. The film is about 0.1mm thin and won’t compromise the visible integrity of the display when built into an LCD panel.
A neat feature of the film’s design, aside from charging a phone by having the phone sit around in any area that isn’t a pitch black dungeon, is that the larger the phone’s screen, the larger the film, the bigger the charge: The film scales. The second generation version of the film is reportedly planned to provide thirty minutes of power per one hour of charge time. Sounds expensive? Don’t worry, Wysips claims the film will only add about one dollar to the cost of a phone, and they hope to have shippable units within a year.
(Wired via The Next Web)
