This Samsung TV remote uses radio waves from router for charging

Samsung at the CES 2022 has showcased a new TV remote that uses radio waves from the home router to stay charged. The company had earlier introduced a solar-powered Eco Remote for its 2021 TVs at the CES event last year.

This year, Samsung has added RF (radio frequency) harvesting capabilities that let the remote preserve its charge by "collecting routers' radio waves and converting them to energy," reports The Verge. The new Eco Remote can also be charged from both outdoor and indoor light or over USB-C.

The TV remote "is meant to better complement Samsung's 'lifestyle' TVs like The Frame, Serif, and Sero. Samsung's Visual Display Business is making its TVs more sustainable by adopting eco-friendly packaging and solar-cell-powered remote controls.

The remote control is made using renewable plastic and powered by photovoltaic energy rather than disposable batteries. "Supposing that a typical TV is used for around seven years, changing the batteries in its remote just once a year would mean that 14 batteries would get used and thrown out," according to Kwanyoung Kim, a Samsung engineer.

"If we apply that number to Samsung Electronics' expected annual global TV sales, it amounts to approximately 99 million discarded batteries. If we apply it to annual TV sales overall, it adds up to nearly 3.1 billion batteries," the company said last year.