Anchor: One of the most inconvenient things about using smart devices is having to constantly charge the battery, which quickly ends up shrinking the battery life. An easy solution may be on its way as South Korean researchers have developed the world's first paper batteries made with desktop printers. 
Our Kim In-kyung has more.
 
Report: An ordinary looking inkjet printer discharges a paper with a picture printed on it.
 
When the image on the paper is hooked to an electrical wire, a light bulb goes on.
 
The words and pictures printed on the paper are in fact batteries.
 
The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology(UNIST) has developed the world's first paper battery using commercial inkjet desktop printers. Instead of ink, the paper was printed with specially formulated battery materials such as electrodes and electrolytes.
 
Professor Lee Sang-young of UNIST's School of Energy and Chemical Engineering said he adjusted the viscosity of the conductive ink so that it can be used in an ordinary printer and that a nano-sized cellulose was used so that the ink wouldn't run on paper.
 
[Sound bite: Professor Lee Sang-young - School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (Korean)]
"If we could make batteries in any form we wanted, it could be a meaningful source of power in the future."
 
The battery's capacity remains constant after ten-thousand charges and discharges and retains the characteristics of a battery at 150 degrees Celsius.
 
The technology may be used to produce backup batteries as thin as business cards or wearable electronic equipment.
 
The only drawbacks so far are the high cost of production and short battery life, which means it will take some time until they are mass produced.
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.