We’ve actually given a little showcase to this phone before in a post on the world’s best Nokia concept phones, but thought that the idea was worthy of a bit more focus.
Nokia E-Cu is a concept phone designed by Patrick Hyland, a UK-based Innovation Design Engineer. The engraved copper backing that makes this such a funky design, also conducts ambient heat into a thermogenerator inside the phone. This heat is then converted into electric potential energy and keeps your phone powered.
Cool warmth
Patrick suggests that the ideal heat to keep your battery fire burning is between 30°-40°C. Now you could sit the phone on a nice warm radiator for a while, but what do you use if your heaters aren’t on?
The simple answer is you.
Your core body temperature is 37°C, but chances are you can’t insert the phone inside your body to charge up. However, normal skin temperature is about 33°C – especially around the chest, stomach or groin (basically anywhere your vital organs are). That means you could charge the phone as you carry it around in your pocket. Clever.
Turning down the heat
Not only is this phone sexy looking, it’s green too. According to Patrick’s research, unwanted phone chargers produce 51,000 tonnes of waste annually. And that’s not taking into account the carbon footprint of manufacturing the chargers and the energy they use when left plugged in for too long.
Nokia E-Cu removes the need for this waste and turns down the heat of global warming, by using natural energy to keep the phone charged. It sounds too good to be true, but could make a big difference in the future.
Whilst there are no plans to put the phone into production at the moment, the concept is definitely something that we might see more of as people look for ways to reduce their power consumption.
What do you think?
As ever, let us know what you think. Is it a good idea to have a phone that doesn’t rely on a charger?