I just saw a presentation by Intel on the future of batteries, energy and small devices and I didn’t realize the research had got this far. We can now harvest mW of energy from the area on and around a small device. It doesn’t sound a lot but look at functions like NFC which use micro-Watts of power.
Battery technology isn’t advancing quickly. It’s because the chemistry is tough and expensive or profit margins are at risk or even that it’s simply shackled by political control. Ambient energy could be a way out.
