Everyone company wants to be “green” now and doing their part, or at least claim they are green, because it is so popular right now.  I haven’t seen much actual progress yet unfortunately (especially from the electronics industry), but then I ran across this interesting prototype from NEC.  They have created a remote control that doesn’t use batteries or any source of external power except for you.  It’s not going to save the world or anything but every little bit helps.

Apparently the device draws its power from the actual clicking on the buttons — something called “scavenging” or, (more appealingly) “harvesting” because it uses waste energy for a good purpose.  Basically it’s the same idea that Swiss watchmakers have been using since the late 18th century to wind watches automatically.

NEC joined forces with the company SoundPower in order to work the technology into their remotes. When a user clicks a button vibrations are created, these vibrations are what they actually draw the power from.  Each click generates enough vibrations and power in order to send the command which means the device should be “sustainable” … another one of those green words.

Personally, I think NEC has a very interesting concept on their hands. It would be very nice to never have to change the batteries in my remote again, specially since I never remember how to properly throw them out.  Then again it would probably be a whole lot greener if we didn’t have to use remotes at all, or at least 10 per household.