Piezoelectric Remote Control: Batteryless and Uses Energy of Motion

Piezoelectric remote control

All those portable electronic devices that make our life a little easier come with significant threats to the environment. And that includes battery powered remote controls too! Batteries, even if they are rechargeable aren’t really green, and this has got researchers thinking for a long time now…

Finally it appears that there may be a solution…

And that comes in the form of…

A batteryless remote control that is powered by motion!

Arveni…

A European company based near Grenoble, France has developed a piezoelectric energy harvesting remote control that converts mechanical energy into electricity when a green button on the unit is pressed.

How does it work?

Whenever you want to change the channel or alter the volume, all you got to do is press a button and use the energy of the button pressure or shake the device for a higher burst of charge.

Pressing the middle button of the piezelectric remote control

Electricity is generated when the button in the middle is pressed

So what about the efficiency of this device?

The overall efficiency of converting energy from mechanical to 3V electrical is 11%. Although that doesn’t sound too impressive Arveni claims this to be an unprecedented achievement as infrared remote control units are fairly high energy consumption devices anyway…