Twist and shout – this foldable battery from Korea can be turned into origami

2015 ushered in the year of the sheep for many people across Asia, but for the tech world, it may go down in history as the year of the wearable. Wearable devices – in the shape of fitness bands, glasses, and watches – aren’t new. But with the Apple Watch arriving in “early 2015,” the wearable movement could be kicked into high gear very soon.

Whether you’re interested in wearable tech or not, the movement has spurred innovation in a number of areas, including component miniaturization, flexible displays, and unconventional batteries. Today at the first Wearable Expo in Tokyo, Busan-based Jenax unveiled a revolutionary new battery than can bend, twist, scrunch – and even fold like Japanese origami. The firm says the battery, dubbed “J.Flex,” was designed specifically to meet the needs of wearable devices and future mobile devices with unconventional form factors.

“Screens can bend, and some companies are making flexible circuits as well,” EJ Shin, Jenax’s planning team manager, tells Tech in Asia. “Now, the battery can bend with the rest of a device. The next generation of smartphones can be completely changed by using J.Flex, as the shape will be up to a designer’s creativity. Down the road, I envision a smartphone that you’ll be able to roll up like a scroll.”

Jenax claims that the rechargeable J.Flex has higher capacity per unit area than other similarly-shaped batteries. Shin explained that it was difficult to describe the battery’s capacity in a hypothetical situation – i.e. in a smartwatch band – as a single size can be designed to hold multiple capacities based on application. She did, however, explain that a J.Flex in the shape of a watch strap could potentially provide as much energy as a typical smartphone, or up to six times the capacity of smartwatches currently on the market.

The battery has passed all of South Korea’s required safety tests for electrical, environmental, and mechanical abuse. Shin explains that during stress testing, the J.Flex was folded more than 200,000 times without any negative effects on performance. It’s also washable (as long as the electrical leads are waterproofed), adding potential usage in smart fabrics and clothing. The company envisions applications far beyond wearables, including medical devices, GPS trackers, robots, computers, household tech, and aeronautics.

Jenax was founded in 1991 as a metal manufacturing company and has been listed on South Korea’s stock exchange, KOSDAQ, since 2002. The company also designs a wide range of conductive materials for industrial applications, textiles, and medical devices. Shin emphasized the fact that Jenax is a Christian company and says that her entire team is committed to ethical and environmental responsibility.

“Our CEO believes that building a company shouldn’t just be about profit,” Shin adds. “As we grow, our influence also grows, and we want to use that to help others. We’ve helped missionaries build schools in Latin America, where we provide education and infrastructure like access to clean water. We introduce ourselves as a Christian company because we hope that other Christian companies will join us in our mission.”

See: South Korea to invest $400M into startups making wearables, drones, and self-driving cars