Tech Time: Smoosh-able Batteries

So site that I've added to my Google Reader is Treehugger - and you might have gotten from the name but it's about being green, ecofriendly and so on. This is an older design they got from another site and posted recently and I thought it looked pretty cool. It's basically a battery that you can resize to fit any device that needs an AAA-D. The idea is that you don't need to keep all different kinds of batteries around, it's more all purpose and you won't be screwed when it's midnight your taxes are due the next day, you calculator is dead and you only have D batteries.

Thinking about it more it's not a super great:

1. You'd probably need to shove that thing into the battery spot before it expanded back, because memory foam doesn't keep its shape that long
2. It might pop out once you get it in
3. If it's a device where you "drop" the battery in, like a digital camera, you might never get that sucker out if it expands
4. Heat + Plastic Foam --> not so good things
5. It only has the power of an AA, so it probably wouldn't last long in a device needing D's
6. You would probably need a lot of them if you wanted to replace ALL the batteries in your house with them

It's definitely an interesting idea but not super realistic. Treehugger talks about a removeable foam sleeve- but that doesn't really solve the problem related to the heat the battery would endure. Maybe they just need to develop some kind of heat resistant eco-polymer to make a wrap out of? Or maybe we can just standardize battery size more...yea like that'll happen any time soon. Wishful thinking on my part

~emy