WYSIPS Technology Turns Touch-Screens Into Solar Panels

WYSIPS won #1 spot at CTIA's 2011 Emerging Technology - Green Telecom & SMART Energy competition for a good reason. #-Link-Snipped-#stands for 'What You See Is Photovoltaic Surface' and now any surface can be turned into a solar power house without changing its appearance. The WYSIPS technology can potentially make all electronic devices self-powered by utilizing the solar energy. The technology can be built into any surface including screens, glass, webs and plastic turning them into sources of energy.

Joël Gilbert - an astrophysicist & inventor  is the brain behind the new technology. He's been working on solar energy research and development since last 7 years. He took inspiration from the holographic process used on book covers. The holographic process combines two images into single in such a way that an individual image is visible depending upon the viewing angle. "I had the idea of replacing one of the two images with thin photovoltaic strips, and it works.”, he adds. He decided to work on the same principle and a semi-cylindrical surface over the top of photovoltaic material in such a way that from one angle the underlying image would be visible and from the other - it would function as a solar panel. The following infographic makes it more clear -

With this, a very flexible and thin flim was developed and micron-sized PV (Photovoltaic) material was laid on it in form of strips. It looks like a completely transparent film from normal viewing angles, however when the sunlight hits it from certain angles, it can result into production of energy. The technology is still in its nascent state and currently only .1-.5 mm thickness has been achieved with 10% efficiency. It's not at par with the latest advancements in technology, however the potential applications are inspiring.
WYSIPS technology may not make your cell phones self energy sufficient in immediate future, however with better design and technology, it may replace the batteries in all cell phones and even other devices. It won't be wrong to imagine the technology being integrated into civil engineering to make supertalls & skyscrappers generate all the energy they need on their own.
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