Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed an ultra-thin device that can power your smartphone, fitness tracker and other gadgets using human movements such as walking and waving.

Based on battery technology and made from layers of black phosphorus that are only a few atoms thick, the energy harvesting system generates small amounts of electricity when it is bent or pressed even at the low frequencies characteristic of human motion.

“In the future, I expect that we will all become charging depots for our personal devices by pulling energy directly from our motions and the environment,” said Cary Pint, assistant professor at Vanderbilt University in the U.S. Compared to the other approaches designed to harvest energy from human motion, the new method has two fundamental advantages, researchers said.