In a flurry of announcements, Japanese manufacturers including Toshiba and NEC said they'd soon be rolling out miniature fuel cells to power mobile phones, music players and laptops.
But companies are rapidly developing miniature medical devices that tap the power of the ubiquitous smartphone in hopes of changing how people monitor their own health.
Given where nanotechnology is headed, it's not inconceivable that they can someday be shrunk down to flea size to power injectable sensors and miniature medical devices.
University of Texas electrical engineer Dr. Shashank Priya thinks he has the solution to this problem, in the form of miniature windmills (not pictured) that can provide adequate power from breezes as faint as 10 MPH.