The search giant Google is joining the research for better batteries to power the company's expansion into hardware and consumer electronics. Initiated by Google X Labs division, a former Apple expert is leading the new 4-person team in a project that aims to revolutionize battery technology.
Battery technology of is struggling to keep up with the fast iteration in tech. As hardware and software just get more powerful and better, they're getting more power hungry. Companies have created fast charging technologies to make up for it, but Google isn’t satisfied with that.
In began in the late 2012 when a team led by former Apple battery expert Dr. Ramesh Bhardwaj began testing batteries developed by others for use in Google's devices. In 2013, the group expanded to look at battery technologies that Google might develop itself.
As Google has started to move beyond the search engine industry into transportation, health care, robotics and communications, all those physical devices require efficient batteries. Google's CEO Larry Page told analysts back in 2013 that battery life for mobile is a "huge issue" with "real potential to invent new and better experiences."
Dr. Bhardwaj has told industry that Google has at least 20 battery-dependent projects. Some of them are the self-driving car that runs on batteries recharged by electricity and Google's Glass internet-connected eyewear. The company's projects are suffering from short battery life, which the company hopes to improve.
Google has joined many other technology companies in the project, including Apple, Tesla Motors and IBM. But before, their efforts only produced little gains - improvements have only been modest, quite a contrast for them that were accustomed to regular and dramatic leaps.
Scientists at Stanford said that they've created an aluminum-ion battery that solves many of the problems with lithium-ion and alkaline batteries.
Promising bigger gains. The solid-state, thin-film batteries transmit a current across a solid, rather than liquid medium, making them considerably smaller and safer. This kind of batteries can be produced in thin, flexible layers, useful for small mobile devices.
The cutting-edge technology can even make these batteries wearable and implantable in the human body.
In a February presentation to an industry conference, Dr. Bhardwaj described how these solid-state, thin-film batteries could be used in smartphones and other mobile devices that are thinner, bendable, wearable and even implantable. He said that these batteries could help power energy-intensive features like video. For the contact lens project Google is working on, the technology is safer because it doesn't use flammable electrolyte liquid.
Other teams at Google are working with Chicago-based AllCell Technologies on more potent batteries for four hardware projects, including Project Loon. The balloons are powered by lithium-ion batteries, but that battery type is performing poorly due to the subfreezing temperatures of the stratosphere where the Loon balloons float.
AllCell wraps those lithium-ion batteries in a wax and graphite material that quickly absorbs heat and spreads it evenly, extending their life. Google is experimenting with specially formulated materials for better cold-temperature performance.
While to most Google's consumers, better batteries in smartphones are enough, Google's target is not just that. In the future, computers aren't just going to be a part of our lives, and Google's end-game is to develop the technology for life-enhancing industry that require batteries in more places than they were meant to be in the first place.