A portable video game that allows you to play endlessly would be a parent's worst nightmare.
Thankfully, this battery-free Game Boy isn't just a toy. It is a feasibility demonstration developed by researchers from Northwestern University and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
What powers the “infinite” Game Boy without batteries?
Instead of expensive and environmentally hazardous batteries that ultimately end up in landfill, this device harvests energy from the sun and the user. Enough energy to allow you to play it practically forever without having to stop to recharge the battery.
“It's the first battery-free interactive device that harvests energy from users' actions,” he said Josiah Hester from Northwestern, who co-led the research. “When you press a button, the device converts that energy into something that powers your game.”
Basically Inception.
“Sustainable gaming will become a reality and we have taken an important step in that direction by completely eliminating the battery.” This is what he says Przemyslaw Pawelczak from TU Delft, who co-led the research. “With our platform, we want to affirm that it is possible to create a sustainable video game system that brings fun and joy to the user.”
The teams will present the “infinite” Game Boy prototype and related research on September 15 at UbiComp 2020, a major conference in the field of interactive systems.
Hester is an assistant professor of electrical engineering, computer science, and computer science at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering. Pawelczak is an assistant professor in the Embedded Software Lab at TU Delft. Their team includes Jasper de Winkel and Vito Kortbeek, both Ph.D. candidates at TU Delft.
How is the Game Boy made without battery?
The game platform developed by the researchers is the size and form factor of the original Game Boy, while being equipped with a series of solar panels around the screen.
The user's button presses are a second source of energy.
When the device switches between power sources, it experiences brief power losses. To ensure acceptable game play time between power outages, the researchers designed the system's hardware and software from the ground up to be very energy efficient.
The team also developed a new technique for storing system state. It is non-volatile memory, which minimizes overhead and allows for quick recovery when power returns. In practice, the player can continue the game from the exact point where he left off due to the loss of power.
In short: a parents' nightmare
On a not-too-cloudy day and for non-easy games, game breaks typically last less than a second for every 10 seconds of play.
Researchers believe this allows for perfect playability for some games, including chess, solitaire, and tetris, but certainly not yet for all.
There's still a long way to go before portable gaming of the future becomes completely battery-free. The researchers hope that these prototypes will raise awareness of the environmental impact of the devices that make up the Internet of Things.
Batteries are expensive, dangerous for the environment, and eventually need to be replaced.
“Our work is the antithesis of the Internet of Things, which has a lot of devices with batteries in them,” Hester said. “Those batteries eventually end up in the trash. If they are not completely discharged, they can become dangerous." And they are difficult to recycle, I add.
