Charging your smartphone could be as easy as slipping on a new cover. Nikola’s phone case uses otherwise wasted energy to boost the battery life of a smartphone by up to 30 per cent without negatively impacting the phone’s performance.
Created by a research team at the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory, the Nikola phone case works by harvesting RF waves – like WiFi, Bluetooth and LTE - generated by smartphones to transmit data through the air.
Only a small fraction of the phone’s signal reaches the receiver. Capturing the rest of the transmission, Nikola’s phone case converts this RF energy into DC power, using it to extend battery life.
Despite an unsuccessful initial Kickstarter campaign, Nikola Labs hopes to move forward with its plans to create an entire platform of wireless charging solutions.
“We’re excited about getting this technology into consumer’s hands, but we are also focusing on what’s next. Our goal is beyond just this phone case. We’re working to enable an entire platform for powering future devices,” says CEO Will Zell.
