Your future phone may never need to be charged.

未来你的手机可能再也不需要充电了。

That's the exciting implication of new research out of the University of Washington, where researchers have created a mobile phone prototype that doesn't require a battery to operate.

这项激动人心的新研究成果出自华盛顿大学，那里的研究人员已经研发出一个无需电池便可运行的手机模型。

The astonishingly efficient prototype requires just 3.5 microwatts of juice, and it employs an innovative¹ approach to avoid the need for a battery cell. Instead, it uses ambient power from radio signals and light — its onboard solar cell is "roughly the size of a grain of rice" — to transmit a signal back to a base station 50 feet away.

该模型的用电效率出奇的高，仅需3.5毫瓦的电量即可运行，还配备了一项“无电池”的创新技术。它配备的太阳能电池与一粒米的大小差不多，电能来源于周围的光或无线信号，从环境中获取能量，并能将信号传输回50英尺外的基站。

The prototype itself is made of simple materials: capacitive touch buttons, a circuit board, and other "off the shelf" components². More impressive is that the team of scientists were able to create a custom base station to transmit the signal with such a small amount of power.

模型的用料很简单：电容触摸按键，一个电路板以及其他一些现成的元件。更令人惊讶的是，研发团队还成功建立了传输该手机的微小能量信号的定制基站。

Using this setup, the researchers were able to successfully make and receive calls (via Skype) and place callers on hold. But the scientists say they want to improve the prototype by adding an e-ink display with video-streaming capabilities³ and encryption to make the calls more secure.

目前研究人员不仅能成功地使用该模型接打电话（通过Skype），还能让呼叫者等待。不过研究人员称，他们接下来想进一步扩展无电池手机的功能，比如安装带有视频传输功能的电子墨水屏幕。同时增加加密功能，确保通话更安全。

Vamsi Tall, who coauthored the paper, says the base station technology they developed — while it's still an early prototype — could make it possible for battery-free mobile phones to become ubiquitous.

该项研究论文的共同作者瓦密斯?涛表示，虽然他们研发的基站技术还只是个雏形，但仍为无电池手机的普及提供了可能。

“You could imagine in the future that all cell towers or Wi-Fi routers could come with our base station technology embedded⁴ in it,” Tall said. “And if every house has a Wi-Fi router in it, you could get battery-free cellphone coverage⁵ everywhere.”

“你可以想象，在不久的将来，所有的移动通讯基站和无线路由器都会置入我们的基站技术，”瓦密斯说道。“如果每个房子都有无线路由器，你就可以在任何地方使用无电池手机。”