[TheAntiDoomer]

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22764/

A cell phone that never needs recharging might sound too good to be true, but Nokia claims that it's developing a prototype device that draws enough power from ambient radio waves to keep a cell-phone handset topped up in standby mode.

[Arsenal]

Its like a low power microwave that is constantly on. People wonder why cancer, MS, etc diseases are so prevalent.

[Oilman21]

That is amazing.. I have never heard of anything like that! Do you know how far along Nokia is in developing that technology? Is there a prototype? Or is the reality of this technology still pretty far down the road?

[TheDude]

Nokia is being cagey with the details of the project, but Rouvala is confident about its future: "I would say it is possible to put this into a product within three to four years."

Wonder what the effect on RF would be from a whole city using these things in tandem. Or the net savings from all those chargers gathering dust. Inneresting, Straight Outta Tesla.

Don't think the RF would be an issue for the brain, p. Those waves are already here, presumably having done their damage already, if there's any risk in the first place. From what I've observed avid users of cellphones are suffering notable mental deficiencies from other sources.

[dbuckley]

You guys are misunderstanding.

What this thing is doing is absorbing RF radiation that already exists all around us from transmitters of many sorts; it doesn't generate any radiation.

Back in WW2 the Germans had propoganda radio stations which had large MW transmitters aimed at the UK and France and a few other places, and they discovered they had some strange gaps in their coverage. On investigation this was found to be people stealing power by errecting resonant antennas and using this captured power to illuminate their barns and the like. Needless to say, the SS took a dim (ugh! bad pun) view of this.

So the same problem will occur with these Nokia things; if they are absorbing RF radiation then they are reducing the range of a radio signal. Do you want your WiFi range limited by your phone nicking its RF power...?

On the other hand they can hardly claim it to be innovative and/or patentable given the idea is decades old