A mobile phone with the ability to recharge itself — wouldn’t that be something spectacular to have in one’s pocket. And this might not be just a dream for too long since Nokia is actually working on such a phone, and if the company is successful, the days of walking with your mobile phone charger could be at an end.

The plan here is to absorb enough power via ambient radio waves to power the mobile devices. For those unaware, ambient radio waves are given off from TV poles, cellphone antennas, and other sources commonly found pretty much everywhere. According to a Nokia researcher, these radio waves could prove powerful enough to keep a mobile phone charged up throughout the day, without having to plug in the phone to an outlet.

The type of technology Nokia is working on sounds splendid, but bear in mind, the Finnish giant isn’t the first company to come up with this idea. In fact, it’s already doable as Oyster Cards used by travelers in London perform a similar feat. There are other places around the world that does similar things; however, Nokia is planning to bring this technology to a completely new level.

Wireless transfers via radio waves are usually low powered, but Nokia plans to harvest a thousand times as much power, even from long distance radio waves. The problem is though, what if a large number of mobile phones in a certain area are feeding off the radio waves, how would that affect charging speed? We’re seriously thinking this technology could be similar to Wi-Fi where it is better with less connected devices.

Nokia plans to kick things off with the first mobile phone powered by radio airwaves in the next 5 years. Hopefully the-once-giant-in-the-smartphone-space can pull it off… which could very well be the one thing to save Nokia from being just another mobile phone vendor second to Apple and Samsung.

[via Technology Review]