There's now an iPhone 6 Case Which can Harvest Electricity From The Air

RaduTyrsina · May 5, 2015

There are many ingenious smartphone cases out there, and now a brand new one deserves our attention. Startup Nikola Labs is working on a new iPhone case that can convert radio frequencies into power, thus potentially keeping your phone charged throughout the day.

The iPhone case will cost $99 and should hit crowdfunding platform Kickstarter somewhere in June. Nikola Labs debuted the new iPhone case at TechCrunch Disrupt. Here's how the team describes its technology:

"Nikola Technology efficiently converts RF signals like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LTE into DC power using its proprietary energy harvesting circuit. The result is usable energy that can provide power to mobile devices wirelessly."

The upcoming iPhone case won’t actually be able to charge your phone from zero to 100% as there’s no internal battery and no way to store any of this energy while it’s not connected to your phone.

For the time being, the antenna and power-converting circuit can only extend the battery life of an iPhone 6 by about 30%, but we'll probably hear more about its technology when the online campaign will go live.

Source: Engadget

APX7000 · May 7, 2015

I call shenanigans on this product! Unless your located downtown in a major city like Chicago, LA, etc, there is not enough "RF radiation" to convert to DC energy to charge anything let alone an iPhone!

I'm an amateur radio operator and know about near field radiation from devices in the 1-20,000mhz range. I'm extremely skeptical about this product and won't be buying one myself if and when available.

The idea of generating DC /AC power from radio transmitters has been around since the 60's. If it were possible, wouldn't you think there would be other products on the market by now? It's NOT a new idea by any means....