If charging phone batteries has been the number one draw back of using smart phones, the researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology may have just come up with the solution. What if your smart phone did not need a battery to function? What if it could be powered by a whole new smart technology?

Professor Tomas Palacios has been experimenting with his team to create a device called the rectenna. A discovery that accepts radio signals and converts them to electric power. Essentially wi-fi signals are captured by an integrated antenna and transformed into DC current suitable to power electric circuits.

The rectenna, as it has been named, will be able to potentially charge a smartphone, laptop, wearable devices as well as medical technology. The rectenna has generated about 40 microwatts of power from the regular 150microwatt based wi-fi signals that are usually available. The study based on the research was published in “Nature” journal.

The medical applications of this science project would prove game changing. Specially in medical implants or pills that are to work on some power once they enter the human system. The potential uses are mind boggling.