Wow, the title here really down plays what it actually does. Wireless power has been around for a while, my electric toothbrush uses that. But scavenging power from existing RF in the environment, that's just cool :)
I have a question to someone with a physics/electronic background:<p>If you implement this idea in a large number of devices, wouldnt a concentration of these devices block/suck the RF signal, impeding any transmision?
Without wires, and without a dock. It's drawing power from ambient radio waves; this is brilliant. This isn't another one of those wireless charging attempts where you need a dock to blast it with EM radiation.
This kind of ambient RF pickup was described in a 1970s Scientific American "Amateur Scientist" column. It required an antenna the size of a frying pan, however, for approximately the same net wattage. I am curious what Nokia's trick was (assuming the achievement was carried out in real life, rather than only on paper.)
My English friend claims he was able to hard-boil an egg in three days with his GSM phone. I've tried in the States and I think he's full of it. But this gives me pause - there is a level of ambient energy from RF devices that is considerable.
Kind of like a crystal radio, but on a much larger scale.<p>(A crystal radio apparently harvests something on the order of tens of microwatts while in operation)
I love this kind of thing. It's effectively a "perpetual motion" machine, but because it uses waste energy generated from somewhere else, it avoids that pesky "laws of physics" thing.<p>I really think we'll see more of this in the future, perhaps even on much bigger scales.