Most of the components in yoursmartphoneconsume energy, but a Cornell team wants one of them to create it. They’re working on acamerasensor that can convert light into both recorded imagesandpower.This isnot just a solar cellhackedon to a traditional camera sensor. It’s a board fitted with a 30 x 40 array of photodiodes. When a highreverse voltage is applied, light that hits the photodiodes causes a voltage drop that’s proportional to its brightness. That allows the camera to record an image.When the photodiodes sit at zero voltage, they act the way they do in a solar cell. Light that falls on the cells creates voltage, but it’s stored instead of being allowed to flow out and create an image. That power can then be stored in a supercapacitor and then used by the camera to continue recording.The Cornell team built their deviceusing off-the-shelf components. If they’re able to miniaturize their creation, it could provide device-sustaining power for your smartphone or tablet one day in the not-too-distant future.Any time your device was lying around not recording video or shooting images through its camera sensors, the photodiodes could be flipped into energy-harvesting mode. All you need is about 300 Lux to stimulate production with the current prototype — so just about any well-lit office space would suffice.It might not create enough juice tokeep your devices running endlessly, but anything that counters the draining effect of theother components (like power-sucking displays and LTE radios) would be a welcome addition. Especially if it’s hidden inside something as ubiquitous as a camera sensor.