28 June,2011 11:35 AM IST | | ANI
An Australian University team, led by an Indian-origin researcher, are claiming that in three years, people will be able to charge their laptops just by typing.
Piezoelectric materials - substances that generate electricity when subjected to pressure or concussion - have been known since the 1880s when Pierre Curie, husband of Marie, discovered them.
The researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have become the first to be able to accurately measure the energy generated by thin pizoelectric films, which they hope will be easier to incorporate into electronic devices such as laptops, mobile phone chargers and pacemakers.
The research hopes for the development of what it calls 'integrated microscale energy scavenging systems,' which would improve efficiency and extend battery life without having to wait for improvement in the batteries themselves, reports the Telegraph.
Dr Madhu Bhaskaran, who led the research told ABC News in Australia: "Currently the energy levels we're able to generate is around ten times less than what's required, so that's the next step, to amplify it by ten times, so we can produce an everlasting battery or replace exisiting batteries.
"If we can amplify the power, which we think will take three years, it should be fairly quick to commercialise it," she added.
The research has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.
