RIM and it’s ability to think ahead never ceases to amaze people, while they do not always deliver on time, and while the company has suffered over the past little while due to many reasons, you have to give RIM credit for being able to hold on and continue to take strides forward. According to Engadget who made the discovery of a patent that was filed in 2009 and stated on the USPTO website, RIM has plans and have been looking to adapt and manufacture a fuel cell for mobile devices that would allow them to charge themselves on the go.

There is not a whole lot of information on this fuel cell and how it will work other than the fact that it will likely be made a part of the main circuit board and will be behind your keyboard. The idea behind placing this fuel cell behind the keyboard is using the keyboard as ventilation for the fuel cell. There are of course many questions on the safety of this ability of being able to do this.

This is the kind of thinking ahead that made RIM what it once was, and with this kind of continued thinking, and future ability to deliver on promises of quality product releases and new devices RIM could be able to crawl and claw its way back into the market it once dominated.

Down below is an excerpt of the patent description taken from the USPTO website

“A mobile device having: a keyboard; a printed circuit board having at least one contact responsive to the keyboard; and a fuel cell assembly having: a fuel cell located between the keyboard and the printed circuit board, the fuel cell having a membrane and at least one aperture corresponding with the at least one contact; a tank adapted to store a fuel for the fuel cell; and piping connecting the tank with the fuel cell, where the fuel cell ventilates through the keyboard. Alternatively, the fuel cell acts as the printed circuit board and at least one contact for the keyboard is printed onto the fuel cell. “