It's a very compact dc-dc converter that steps the actual battery voltage up to 1.5 volts. How much extra life it can give depends on the shape of the voltage-stored energy curve which depends on the battery chemistry, and on how well the device the batteries are powering tolerates dropping voltage. Alkaline batteries have a "gentle" slope on the voltage-stored energy curve, so there is a lot of energy left when the voltage is down to 1.2 volts, say, and still a good bit left even at .7 or .8, while NiCd and NiMH batteries have a very steep falloff with lots of energy left at 1.2 volts and almost none at 1.0 volts. For simple devices like a flashlight with alkalines this will keep the brightness up until the very end (which is what they are basing that 800x on), while for a sophisticated electronic device that already has a power supply that does this job it won't make any difference. For something in between it will help some, like with devices that really need 1.5 volts per cell and don't like to run on NiCd or NiMH cells that are only 1.25-1.3 volts when fully charged. The patent they are bragging about is only "applied for", it has not been granted yet, so there's a lot of salesmanship in the article . One unintended consequence they don't mention is that if the device has a battery level indicator it will be fooled into thinking the battery is always at 100% until it suddenly dies. Anyway, seems like a useful idea in a lot of circumstances and some good, clever engineering to make the converter so compact, but IMHO it isn't going to revolutionize the battery world because so many devices already have this kind of functionality built in.
. One unintended consequence they don't mention is that if the device has a battery level indicator it will be fooled into thinking the battery is always at 100% until it suddenly dies. Anyway, seems like a useful idea in a lot of circumstances and some good, clever engineering to make the converter so compact, but IMHO it isn't going to revolutionize the battery world because so many devices already have this kind of functionality built in.
