keep your laptop charged With This Gadget

Soon just walking down the street could help keep your laptop battery juiced.

In 2007, a team at Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), invented a flexible battery with the potential to revolutionise wearable technology.

Now, the Advanced Energy Storage team have integrated the battery into a wearable energy system, called the Flexible Integrated Energy Device (FIED), and are currently testing it as a backpack.

Adam Best, a member of the CSIRO team, told Mashable Australia, the FIED has three main parts: an energy harvesting system that gathers energy from the wearer's movements and sits between the backpack straps and the pack, a flexible battery that stores energy, and fabric woven from conductive fibres, which can double as cabling to connect electronic devices.

IMAGE: CSIRO

The wearable energy system could be used to run a GPS, a light, an iPod or something similar, Best added. A FIED system could also be helpful in the mining industry, or anywhere people work in dangerous conditions and need to wear location devices and keep them charged. A similar system could also assist elderly people who need to wear alarms to notify carers if they fall over and don't get up. Defence also offers opportunities, he suggested.

The FIED's battery life remains a challenge, however. "We're trying to ensure that the battery has a life that is usable for a range of devices," he said. "We have to have it up to something that maybe an iPhone cell life would have, otherwise it won't be usable ... we're looking for partners to improve it and bring it to market."

The team's flexible battery — a key part of the wearable energy system — is particularly special. Best said on the CSIRO's blog, the flexible battery could solve a number of problems facing wearable technology, especially those raised by attempts to integrate the more standard inflexible batteries we know from our tablets, smartphones and other gadgets.

"Batteries are rigid. Ours is flexible. Batteries go flat. FIED is like a supercharged Energizer bunny," he said. "And wires? We’ve got rid of them ... We think the battery is the best bit. It’s bendable and flexible. It can liberate a device from its electronics, letting it take on a size and shape that truly fits its purpose."

Besides the FIED, according to Best, the team's flexible battery could improve the functionality — and even the look — of devices like Apple Watches and Fitbits.

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