Everyone who has used a battery-powered electronic device at one time or another has probably wished for more battery life. Whether it is your cell phone, laptop, or even a battery-powered car, the benefits of longer battery life are obvious. IBM has recently announced an innovation that could dramatically increase battery life in the next five years, and may even eliminate the battery altogether for some devices.

IBM’s “Next Five in Five” announcement is a list of innovations that they expect to change the way people do things in the next five years. They are based on emerging trends and technologies of what IBM believes are in our future, and even based on some technologies being worked on in some IBM labs.

One of these predictions was batteries that could provide much longer battery life than current technologies, up to 10 times longer than today. Some of these batteries may even react with the air we breathe to create a charge, unlike the lithium-ion batteries of today which must include a number of chemicals and heavy components that add weight. This could be a huge innovation that also eliminates many of the potentially harmful materials in the batteries we use as well.

At the same time, IBM is working on reducing the energy requirements of electronic devices to a very low amount. The combination could mean devices that don’t require a traditional battery at all, instead relying on the movement of your body for a charge. This is already present in some wristwatches, which need no winding or charging but simply charge from the movement of an arm.

IBM has not released many details about this technology, but their prediction is that it will be possible within the next 5 years. No matter what form this technology eventually takes, the promise of lighter, longer-lasting batteries is a great thing to look forward to.