I think we all know from the film The Matrix (a film that I have been meaning to review on Speculative Fiction Saturday), that the human body does generate a kind of bio-electricity. Granted, you need a lot of humans for that for a power plant to harness this energy efficiently, but could one body power something small, like a mobile phone?

This would certainly be the case with this theory from professor Jo Byeong-jin of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Apparently, a four-inch strip that can harness your body to power a microchip, but you will need 400 square inches to power a mobile phone (about two watts).

Yeah, you would need clothes that would surround your skin, and be very tight as well. I think the closest illustration I can give is a stillsuit form Frank Herbert’s Dune, but instead of a suit that can maintain internal moisture, this is a suit that can power your phone. Yeah, I just used a Dune reference.

Well, this tech would be good for situations like soldiers in the desert or in the arctic, and Dr. Jo expects that his type of technology will be available in a few years. We’ll see.

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