Samsung's New TV Remote Uses Radio Waves From Your Router To Stay Charged

The new version of Samsung's Eco Remote features 'RF harvesting capabilities that let the remote preserve its charge by 'collecting routers' radio waves and converting them to energy,'' reports The Verge. It can also be charged with solar energy. From the report: Aside from the new RF harvesting option, the Eco Remote can be charged from both outdoor and indoor light or (for the fastest results) over USB-C. Samsung says it's introducing a white model of the remote this year, which the company says is meant to better complement its 'lifestyle' TVs like The Frame, Serif, and Sero. As with the original remote, the intention here is to ditch AAA batteries. Samsung has previously estimated that switching to solar-powered remotes could avoid 99 million discarded batteries over the course of seven years. It has also explored other ways of self-charging the internal battery such as 'harnessing the kinetic energy that's created when the remote is shaken' and 'using the vibrational energy that's created when the microphone picks up sounds.' But this time around it settled on adding RF harvesting as another way to keep the clicker functioning whenever you need it.

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