Tiny Device Looks To Extend Battery Life

As the technology built into battery powered devices like laptops and cell phones advances, so does their demand for power. It’s great that your cell phone can now act as a fully functional GPS device and HD video player, but it starts looking a lot less attractive when its battery life is knocked out in a matter of minutes.

It may seem like battery technology isn’t keeping up with demand, but the real culprit behind the shorter battery life we suffer with is the inefficient way in which our devices draw power. ”If you’re listening to music on your MP3 player, you don’t need to send power to the image and graphics processors at the same time,” said Harvard graduate student WonYoung Kim. “If you’re just looking at photos, you don’t need to power the audio processor or the HD video processor.”