A new energy-harvesting technology that can transform ambient radio frequency waves into usable electricity has been unveiled. Dubbed “Freevolt,” the patented technology turns unused radio waves to charge low-power devices such as wearables, smoke alarms and motion cameras.

Lord Paul Drayson, the former British minister for science and chief executive of Freevolt’s developer Drayson Technologies, provided an actual demonstration of the technology at The Royal Institution in London by powering a loudspeaker with the use of energy from mobile phone signals.

Freevolt is built with a multi-band antenna and rectifier, a type of battery that converts alternating current to direct current. These features enable the technology to absorb energy from multiple radio frequency bands, according to Drayson Technologies and Imperial College London.

For years, companies have been researching how to harvest energy from Wi-Fi, cellular and broadcast networks, Drayson said. These initiatives, however, proved difficult because there is only a small amount of energy to harvest, and achieving the right level of rectifying efficiency was an issue.

“With Freevolt, we have created something special. For the first time, we have solved the problem of harvesting usable energy from a small RF signal,” he added.

With its small and lightweight design, Freevolt is scalable and suitable for a range of uses, according to its developers. In addition to powering wearables, sensors and beacons, the technology could potentially be integrated into urban and industrial architecture.

The first commercial application of Freevolt technology is the CleanSpace Tag air sensor, which allows individuals to monitor the air quality around them. The personal pollution monitor is paired with a mobile application to keep track of carbon monoxide levels and the transport choices an individual makes. It then sends the information to a larger database that collects data across the UK. It is currently being manufactured in the UK and will soon be made available to major cities across the world.

In 2011, a research team from Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering published a study on harvesting energy from the radio waves. By scavenging this ambient energy, researchers noted that AC pulses could be converted into DC power for storage in supercapacitors or batteries.

For the research, they used an ultra-wideband antenna that allowed them to exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, which gave them increased power-gathering capability. The antennae, according to researchers, were printed using ordinary ink-jet machines with nanoparticle “ink.”

Energy harvested from radio waves was also featured at the TechCrunch Disrupt event in New York in May 2015. Technology company Nikola Labs introduced a case for the iPhone 6 that captures this type of energy and uses it to charge the smartphone, allegedly expanding the battery life of the iPhone 6 by about 30 percent.

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