London designer Patrick Hyland has come up with a rather zany conceptual handset, borrowing the Nokia name for his design. What makes the Nokia E-Cu (E is for environment, while Cu stands for Copper) so special, you ask? Well, it can be juiced thanks to available heat in your pocket. This is made possible since an integrated thermogenerator will convert heat from any source into electrical energy in order to juice up the handset, regardless of whether it resides in your pocket or is placed on top of a radiator. Does this mean we can now toast our phones over the fireplace while sipping on hot chocolate and munching on marshmallows?
Keeping a phone charged can be a pain, especially at the end of the day when you’re out of the house and dealing with a sliver of battery life. If only a phone could stay charged up all day without you ever having to think about it.
That’s the idea behind the Nokia E-Cu concept, a slim phone that uses an integrated thermogenerator that converts heat into energy. That means it could get a slight charge while sitting in your pocket against your leg and an even bigger charge while placed on top of a radiator.
Just how realistic is this? Probably not so realistic that you’ll see this in stores next year, but I don’t think it’s so out of the realm of possibility that we’ll never see something like this implemented. At least I hope so, as there are few things more annoying than being out and about with a dead cellphone.
