How many times have you come across the dreaded situation where you have to make an all-important call and find yourself in the midst of nowhere with a dead cell phone battery? You do not have a charger and you are miles away from access to a plug point. What could you possibly do in such a scenario?

Well, there are a couple of solutions available. One could carry along a spare charged battery, and voila! you have a fully charged phone as soon as you replace the discharged battery. However, this might not always be possible. Oh, and I know quite a few people (whom I shall call Mobile Killers) who can make the most powerful batteries bite the dust in a matter of a few hours. They are people who use the multimedia capabilities of the cellphones of today and remain connected to the Internet via 3G, WiFi or GPRS simultaneously -- insatiable battery resource hogging features.

Other options include devices like these, which certainly do the job, but are not reliable, and guess what? I feel these are "stop gap" arrangements. What we need is a permanent solution to this issue. So, here's something that's futuristic enough to feature on Future Watch!

Enter fuel cells. Now, automobile buffs might be aware that fuel cell powered cars and buses are being used in many countries; as far as I know, this is the most popular application for fuel cells. However, there have been continuous advancements in this field over the past few years, and we have seen instances of fuel cell usage migrating to other applications, ranging from fuel cell powered submarines to concepts of portable "on the fly" chargers for your gadgets.

To date, fuel cell powered chargers were restricted by legislation - being banned on flights because of the presence of methanol, butane, and formic acid in the fuel cell apparatus. This legislation has stunted the growth of the "compact" fuel cell industry all these years; it was recently scrapped by the US Department of Transportation. This has, as expected, lead to a heightened interest in this field due to the financial rewards that can be reaped by targeting this untapped market. So, what is in store now?

Companies like Lilliputian Systems and Medis Technologies are already working on little fuel cell based "generators" that will keep your gadgets powered for a long time with its cigarette lighter sized fuel cell based charging devices. These devices are expected to see the light of day sometime in the last quarter of 2009. Some others, on the other hand, have already introduced products that might be a bit ungainly to look at now. Hey, that's OK. They are new devices. Remember the first cellphone? You might not want to be seen dead with it now. These products, according to Lilliputian Systems, will be sold for $100 and $150 with recharge cartridge prices ranging from $1 to $3.

Expect a slew of devices by the end of next year, and you could finally have a futuristic 'charging point on the go' at your disposal!