By 
Battery-packed cases are nothing new, but one firm is looking to create a power case that draws its energy from elsewhere: your phone. This is the Nikola Phone Case, and its creators — Nikola Labs — invented a way for the case to capture the energy your phone emits when it’s searching for a cellular signal.
Their original theory was that phones emit way more energy looking for a signal than is actually needed. Instead of that energy just evaporating into nothingness, the case captures it and transforms it into usable DC energy that can power your smartphone.
The result is a phone that lasts a bit longer than it would otherwise. The downside is that it probably won’t add more energy than a battery case could, but the upside is that the lack of a battery means you won’t need to charge the case, and it doesn’t add nearly as much girth. And if Nikola Labs’ claims are anything to go by, it does add a substantial bit of juice:
So how much, and when? You can get the case at its standard price of $99 through a Kickstarter pledge, with shipment slated to be fulfilled as soon as January 2016. It’ll be available in four different color combinations — Black / Gold, White / Grey, White / Gold, Black / Grey or Red / Grey — as well as a neat t-shirt to profess your love for Nikola Labs.
The project is sitting at $53,000 of its doable $135,000 goal with a full 36 days to go, so there’s a really good chance this thing is getting funded. Be sure to throw your dollars into the hat if you want one.
[via Kickstarter]
I’d love if this actually worked, but I’m still wondering if it won’t destroy your signal quality, or cause phone to ramp up signal strength even more. Plus it would definitely need to shrink in size considerably to be practical
How efficient is it vs the other free power option? (a solar panel case)
Very ineffective. Solar panels are only about 20-30% efficient based on the radiation they receive, so technically they are pretty inefficient too.
But – if they made a belt-clip style case that went onto a headband then you could be charging it all of the time you are walking around while showing they world what kind of cool cellphone you have. I think I’ll go put that idea on kickstarter…
You’d maybe charge 5% of your battery in a day unless you’re outside 100% of the time in direct sunlight. It’s just not realistic. If they were going to try anything, capturing mechanical energy from motion might do something, but it will still be very minimal because of the limited size of the form factor.
Lol. I forgot to use the right tags:
Getting tired of all the Sheldons on the internet that don’t get sarcasm/are idiots in regards to everything outside their “field of expertise” that’s caused by their Asperger’s. Get some damn medication or get off the internet.
I think they should also license the tech for others to make cases. Imagine “smart” cases that are self powered and do not need a connection to the phone, such as one that display time, or notification.
This is almost certainly BS. It’s not like cell phone makers are so crappy at power management and antenna design they are just spraying pointless RF energy in every direction. If this works at all it’ll likely degrade your signal while providing at best a minimal boost to battery life.
Why doesn’t the phone manufacturer just design the phone so that it uses less energy looking for a signal? Bypass getting a case and just getting an efficient phone that does not waste energy.
This is why I’m glad to have a replaceable battery on my Note 4 – in about 30 seconds, I go from a dead battery to a full battery, and not have to worry about a fugly case or dampened wireless reception.
I call BS. When looking for a signal a device should be listening, not transmitting. This is a dumb idea. Wired has an article about why using WiFi to power a smartphone wont work. the exact same rules apply here. http://www.wired.com/2015/06/power-wifi-isnt-think/
It would be more efficient if the transactions didn’t happen in the first place. A case is going to pick up maybe 5% of the energy emitted tops. Cellular radio does not make up that much of battery consumption anyway. Complete failure.
Total garbage
If they take the signal’s energy it won’t make it to the tower. I call BS on this one.
People will fund anything on kickstarter.
I’ve developed a pill that turns a humans fart into a natural laxative. I only need 500k for funding. Who’s down?
Powerbank is a thing.
GS6 owners are really getting desparate with that tiny battery…
Or maybe they prefer to make it for the s6 seeing how it’s the most popular android phone and has a huge customer base?
My battery life on my GS6 is great actually, if you look at usage hours compared to other phones it would be hard to match up. More efficient screen, processor, ram goes a long ways, sure a bigger battery just to completely crush all the other phones in battery would be cool. For now though it is better off than most phones on the market in battery life.
A Peltier device (Thermo electric generator) would have been cooler (no pun) and equally ineffective.
Can’t wait to see some guys from hackaday debunk it. I’d be really surprised if this is actually legit. If this is possible why not be able to draw from other nearby rf signals that we are showered with daily?
Probably cuz the energy showered and soaring thru the air is never consistent enough to give a solid charge to products that eat tons more energy. Look if this turns out to be true that this device is somehow converting signals into energy, then we have to revisit the long term safety of whether all these signals passing thru us will cause major health issues….One fringe science that seems to at least prove itself in comparison to this project is the whole notion of Orgonite being able to negate RF Frequencies and help encourage a positive atmosphere…if this battery does what it does and turns out to be true, then Orgonite fanatics have touched one piece of a legitimate puzzle and probably other folks skeptical of other RF frequencies will have something to say……Just the notion that you can harness this energy straight from ur device as the signal travels outbound is sure to jumpstart a whole fucking slew of topics…..Mostly everyone here on the comments have already shown they are ready to jump on anyone to tell’em the “put on ur tinfoil hat and go back to your basement” line.
Now another interesting thing we have heard from folks is with the phones that explode or get hot under pillows, the heat generated is only proof the phone is working harder to make the connection to a cell tower. I had this happen with my EVO 4G in 2010, the bastard heated up to 129 degrees under my pillow, luckily it didnt start a fire, cuz i woke and let it cool off.
My next best guess is if this is not true, then the packs maybe converting the heat that our devices generate with this signal search, and reconverting into energy. Dont know how they do it..but a best next guess, and better then the absorbment of RF waves which everyone is almost calling quackery.
http://inhabitat.com/duke-university-students-find-a-way-to-charge-cell-phones-with-wi-fi/
It’s very possible. Read this article. It isn’t going to charge your phone, but it definitely will extend your time between charges.
I don’t see this working without at least degrading/interfering with your radio signal somehow. I’ll believe it when/if I see it.
See ya if you ever get to market. No more Kstarters for me. Market first then I’ll sniff ya.
Police should catch them and make sure they return the money to the ignorance!
I’m going to use this free energy to cook my free lunch.
Why are you promoting this tripe?
for $99 it betta be proven!!!
I have a cold fusion reactor in my garage. If anyone is interested in purchasing it, please dial 1800-IAMANIDIOT.
If this actually were something that worked, it would be interesting to see built into a phone. Though their claim of it not being bulky is pretty far from the truth, it looks exactly like a battery case.