The new technology should reduce the carbon footprint of devices by eliminating the need for batteries. An additional benefit is reducing maintenance costs.
Today, batteries are in almost everything to power modern technology. They will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but Oppo is looking even further with an innovative and detailed paper. The research talks about using devices that are charged thanks to radio frequency (RF) radiation.
In a nutshell, technologies such as bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the cellular network could power your devices in the future. A battery would no longer be needed or with a lower capacity, which would be good for the environment and for the life of the device in question.
In addition to charging devices via RF, Oppo also sees opportunities in processing information in the signals to then rebroadcast them. This turns every device into an energy-efficient communication beacon. The potential for this is endless within Internet of Things (IoT) in the transportation, agriculture or logistics industries, for example, but also at home or in a smart office.
Energy via RF is in experimental phase
Oppo is not the only manufacturer experimenting with RF signals to power hardware. For example, Samsung earlier at CES 2022 launched a TV remote control that translates RF signals into power in addition to solar charging. Other telecom manufacturers such as Motorola and Xiaomi are also working on prototypes that translate RF into power.
According to the report, Oppo has tested the feasibility of the technology and is now starting a general push to develop energy-free communication protocols. For now, everything sounds like science fiction and it will be a long time before RF is functionally useful for charging devices, but continuous research is important to reduce our need for batteries in the future.