*One keeps hearing about these ambient-power schemes; here's yet another one, maybe this one will run.
*The ubicomp implications ought to chirp for themselves.
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/scavenging-free-green-power-from-radio-waves-35622
"For several years, the Georgia Tech team has been working on very low-cost transducers that can tap into these transmissions and could result in a free, constant flow of electricity to power-up improved devices such as RFID tags, environmental monitors and medical sensors. It could even provide the power to add security to a new generation of RFID tags.
“There is a large amount of electromagnetic energy all around us, but nobody has been able to tap into it,” said Manos Tentzeris (pictured left), a professor and research leader in the Georgia Tech School. “We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, giving us greatly increased power-gathering capability.”
"The antennas will be low-cost to produce, he said, and the research units are printed using ordinary ink-jet machines using a nanoparticle “ink”. The substrate is either paper or a flexible polymer. The ink is described as “a unique in-house recipe” containing silver nanoparticles and/or other nanoparticles in an emulsion. This not only allows RF components and circuits to be printed but also opens up the possibilities of novel sensing devices based on carbon nanotubes and other nanomaterials...."
