A team of researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments have designed a new microchip which could use up to 10 times less energy than existing chips. The amount of energy needed to power these chips is so low that they could actually be powered from body heat or movement.

The team behind the chip completely redesigned the technology to run on a reduced voltage. A typical microchip works at 1 volt, while this new concept ha been reduced to worked at 0.3 volts. This innovation could dramatically reduce power consumption of portable electronic running on batteries. In addition, the researches hope that the design can even be run on 'ambient energy' from the body or motion, which would make it ideal for powering electronic medical devices such as pacemakers or and health monitoring systems. However the technology won't be commercially available for another 5 years.

Via Inhabitat