NEW DELHI: Google is developing better battery technologies that could help power the Web mogul’s next set of consumer electronics and other hardware.
A team, led by former Apple battery expert Dr Ramesh Bhardwaj, began testing batteries developed by others for use in Google devices. In 2013, that group expanded to look at battery technologies that Google could develop itself.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google has recently moved into industries such as transportation, health care, robotics and communications, designing physical devices that require efficient batteries and in CEO Larry Page’s view, battery life for mobile devices is a ‘huge issue’ with ‘real potential to invent new and better experiences.’
Google’s research team working on battery technologies is part of Google X research lab with just four members. The team is working towards advancing the current lithium-ion technology and the cutting-edge solid-state batteries for consumer devices, such as Glass and Google’s glucose-measuring contact lens.
Lead researcher, Dr Bhardwaj, had told industry executives that the search giant has at least 20 battery-dependant projects. Self-driving cars that run on batteries is one of the company’s fast-paced projects. Its high-tech wearable gadget, Google Glass, has faced poor battery life which is expected to be improved with Google’s efforts.
Other companies who are venturing into improving battery technologies include Apple, Tesla Motors and International Business Machines Corp. Their efforts have so far produced only incremental gains, a contrast for tech companies accustomed to regular, dramatic leaps in the efficiency of semiconductors.
Dr Bhardwaj explained in an industry conference how solid-state, thin-film batteries could be used in smartphones and other mobile devices that are thinner, bendable, wearable and even implantable in the human body.
Recently, scientists at the Stanford University claimed to have developed an aluminium-ion battery that is economical, safer, and has wider applications in consumer and medical purposes.
