Nuke `em: Microwave ovens might soon charge mobile phones, gadgets

Soon, the microwave oven might be used, not just to cook food but also charge your mobile phone and other electronic gadgets.

 

Researchers from the University of Tokyo and Georgia's Institute of Technology have initially developed a device that can gather and store microwave energy from the oven.

 

"The energy accumulated over two minutes was found to be sufficient for the operation of some of low-power kitchen tools for a few minutes and operate wireless sensor node for 2.5 hours," the team, led by engineer Yoshihiro Kawahara, said in a paper. 
 

The team did however admit that more work is needed to perfect the device, saying the energy stored in the capacitor after two minutes "was only 15 percent of the ideal case."

 

It said it may further improve the accumulated energy from leakage of microwave ovens "by using more sophisticated impedance matching and power management methods."

 

Other members of the team included:

 

- Xiaoying Bian, University of Tokyo

- Ryo Shigeta, University of Tokyo

- Rushi Vyas, Georgia Institute of Technology

- Manos Tentzeris, Georgia Institute of Technology

- Tohru Asami, University of Tokyo

 

A separate report on Mashable said the machine the team built can harvest the wasted energy that microwave ovens produce while they run.

 

"Here's how it works: The harvester has an antenna that picks up any excess energy, and channels it to other devices," it said.

 

But Mashable also cautioned the technology is not quite ripe yet to have microwave ovens pull double duty. In the United States, it said federal regulations limit the amount of energy allowed to leak from a microwave to "far below the level known to harm people."

 

"As a result, you would need to run your microwave for an extended period of time in order to generate any type of meaningful charge. Initial tests from Kawahara found that running the microwave for two minutes generated enough energy to power kitchen devices, such as a timer with small batteries, for only a few minutes," it said.

 

Mashable said Kawahara got inspiration from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's efforts to harvest wasted energy from the sun.

 

It said a NASA project aims to send solar farms to orbit the earth, and catch the sun's excess energy.

 

"That energy would then be beamed down to earth in the form of radio waves," Mashable said. – KDM, GMA News