Electricity will always be the great ambition of the human being, with geniuses like Tesla or Volta trying to control it but couldn’t. Do you think our generation will manage to do it someday? Experts have traditionally been skeptical along these lines, but now they are less so. You might ask: What’s changed? A legendary brand has just created the first battery without energy, which they have called “immortal” and which could revolutionize the entire global industry, which has been taken by surprise.
Experts have “hacked” energy for the first time: This is the first immortal battery ever
According to the latest update, Oppo’s Zero Power Tag has been awarded one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023 in the Experimental category, as the invention categorizes itself on its own to deliver an IoT connection with no power needed. This motion-sensing tracking device does not require any batteries and extracts energy from the existing radio, such as RF signals.
The zero power tag is a slim, rectangular-shaped item that comes with a black or white, unobtrusive plastic casing. It has problems with its size and the absence of a battery, though it is an excellent gadget for attaching to various objects for tracking and controlling. The tag takes advantage of Oppo’s Zero Power Communication, which uses RF power transmission and low-energy processing.
It’s not science fiction: The first battery without energy ever produced, in detail
Oppo’s Zero Power Tag boasts impressive performance metrics enabled by its innovative power source:
- Smaller size: What is missing is the battery, thus, the construction is more compact and unobtrusive to the person’s body.
- Better durability: If the tag does not have a battery, it has a lesser likelihood of getting damaged over a certain amount of time.
- Greater signal distance: Self-powered tag can send and receive information to and from smartphones and similar gadgets at farther distances than other battery-based options.
- Lower cost: Similarly, the stripped-down physical build and eliminating manufacturing complexity saves on cost, making the IoT solution cheaper.
The first practical application of Oppo’s Zero Power Communication technology was initially introduced at the MWC 2023, which released the Oppo Zero Power Tag prototype. Currently, the company is customizing the device hardware, software and market norms associated with the device and coming up with features like health tracking to add on to functionality of the device.
We found one major detail of the Zero Power Tag quite stunning, and that is its power capacity, which is infinite due to its capability to extract energy from the surrounding RF signals. This means is that it is more capable of powering up the IoT device continuously without the need for replacing the battery or charging, which makes the IoT solution almost entirely sustainable.
Its environmental impact, according to its developers: Experts cannot believe these details
Thus, Oppo suggests numerous possibilities for the usage of the Zero Power Tag: tracking objects, monitoring climate, tracking health indicators, and even tracking wildlife. This is because the tag utilizes energy from Earth’s existing Radio Frequency signals to power its operation, thus making it a better candidate for installation in difficult-to-reach areas and other locations.
When it comes to possible applications, Oppo provides one of them: to monitor the movement of endangered birds using the Zero Power Tag. Thus, the tags themselves can stay on birds and constantly record their movements and behaviors, without requiring new batteries’ application or recharging.
The chances are that Zero Power Tag holds great efficacy for minimizing the environmental effects of IoT devices through the obviation of disposable batteries. Currently, Oppo believes that its technology is capable of eliminating millions of batteries from finding their way to the dump annually.
This zero-energy battery could be the first step towards zero cell degradation, something that could also be applied to photovoltaics (with a much greater potential in this regard, it must be said). According to its developers, we are not facing the end of charging devices, but the end of replacing them every year due to their short useful life (without going into programmed obsolescence). Perhaps we can talk about the invention of the year, which has been described as such by many specialized media.
