Korean boffins have created a new type of mobile phone battery that responds to the human voice, meaning you get rewarded with juice the more you talk into it. The so-called “sound power” works when the tiny strands of the zinc oxide pressed between two electrodes react to soundwaves, which generate electrical currents and charge the battery.
Leading the project is Dr Sang-Woo Kim at the Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea, who hinted at future projects: “Sound power can be used for various novel applications including cellular phones that can be charged during conversations and sound-insulating walls near highways that generate electricity from the sound of passing vehicles.” [IT Times via The Telegraph]