FSU professor charged up about body-heat cellphone technology

Daryush Ila, the university's associated vice chancellor for research and technology and a physics professor, is developing a way to channel body heat and turn it into power.

The process starts with a thin piece of plastic film that amplifies thermoelectricity.

"Whatever is your heating device, just a small amount it, you cover it with this thermoelectric and you produce more electricity than you need," he said.

Ila has two patents on the product, which modifies quantum dots – or Nano crystals – into a new material that produces the power.

The device he's developing would fit on the back of a cellphone, allowing users to charge their devices while holding them.

Ila has been working on the project for years, and it's one FSU Chancellor James Anderson said he's excited about.

"Thermoelectric transference of energy to a device from your heat," Anderson said. "That something you tended to see on Star Trek."

Ila and others at FSU are working in a prototyping lab on the next steps, hoping to bring the product to market within the next 10 months.

"Hopefully by summer we can open up and everybody comes in," Ila said. "We make prototypes of devices for people to come in and maybe buy."