Nokia has hit smartphone innovation head on with wireless charging, PureView camera technology and more, but the company doesn't appear to wish to halt with what's already on offer. According to a report over on MonWindowsPhone, Nokia is believed to be looking to work with SunPartner Group on its What You See Is Photovoltaic Surface (Wysips) product and add solar charging to smartphones later this year.
Prototypes are rumoured to be making an appearance at this coming Mobile World Congress. Now, before we head into this rumour, do have the salt shaker at hand.
Wysips has a goal to implement solar technology into a wide variety of appliances, including LCD screens and smartphones. Our interest is peeked, as is a mobile device manufacturer. Nokia? Possibly, but without further information we can't call names just yet. But first, what's this technology all about and what has it got to do with Windows Phones?
The Wysips solar film which would be applied to smartphones is not entirely transparent, but appears so to the user by lenticular printing (AKA magic), an optical technology that reveals different images depending on the viewer’s position. It's often used to create 3D effects and animations. The Wysips product consists of two layers mounted onto the smartphone screen:
- A film of photovoltaic strips
- A thin flexible lenticular film, by which the user sees the screen or image from one angle, and the PV layer from another angle.
It's not such a farfetched idea as Wysips is already working on such technology, which will see smartphones recharge through enough exposure to the Sun's rays. But who could be looking at implementing this into hardware? Nokia would be a superb bet, if we do say so ourselves. With wireless charging already established and included in mid-high level Windows Phones, we could always see solar charging too.
MonWindowsPhone managed to get word that Wysips has signed a deal with a smartphone manufacturer, but the brand remains confidential. It's still some time before we see such features included on mobile hardware, but could Windows Phone be the first platform to support it? If we were Microsoft or Nokia and have not yet looked at Wysips, we'd look at snapping up this concept quickly.
As noted above, we'll be expecting more details at MWC.
via: MonWindowsPhone, WattNow
