How your old phone could become a ‘tiny data centre' helping researchers to track marine life
Each year, more than 1.2 billion smartphones are produced globally. Despite the expense to consumers and the environmental toll of producing them, our devices have an increasingly short lifespan as people tend to replace them every two to three years.
But rather than gathering dust in a drawer - or adding to the world's mountain of electronic waste - discarded smartphones could be reconfigured for a range of useful green applications.
'Innovation often begins not with something new, but with a new way of thinking about the old, re-imagining its role in shaping the future,' says Huber Flores, Associate Professor of Pervasive Computing at the University of Tartu in Estonia.
He is one of several European researchers behind the new study published in the IEEE Pervasive Computing journal.
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Turning outdated smartphones into micro data centres is surprisingly cheap, if you know how.
The researchers found that it only costs around €8 to bypass a phone's hardware features and reprogramme it.
Firstly, the researchers removed the phones' batteries and replaced them with external power sources to reduce the risk of chemical leakage into the environment, a ScienceDaily report explains.
Then, four phones were connected together, fitted with 3D-printed casings and holders, and turned into a working prototype ready to be reused.
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The prototype created by researchers was put to use underwater, where it participated in the monitoring of marine life by helping to count different sea species.
Normally, these kinds of tasks require a scuba diver to record video and bring it to the surface for analysis. The prototype meant the whole process could be done automatically underwater.
And there are many other ways that a phone's capacity to efficiently process and store data can be put to good use after its WhatsApping days are done.
These mini data centres could also be used at bus stops, for example, to collect real-time data on the number of passengers. This could help to optimise public transportation networks.
Such smartphone repurposing is just a drop in the ocean of issues that natural resource mining, energy-intensive production and e-waste present. Ultimately, we need to challenge this throwaway culture and move to a more circular model.
But the research shows one small way to satisfy demand for computing power with what we've already got.
'Sustainability is not just about preserving the future,' says Ulrich Norbisrath, Associate Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Tartu. 'It's about reimagining the present, where yesterday's devices become tomorrow's opportunities.'
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