CHIBA, Japan -- The written word has power, and you can generate electricity from it too.

The photo shows a piezoelectric panel from Hokuriko, a component manufacturer in Japan. When you write with the stylus, the kinetic energy produced from writing is converted to electricity and fed back into the system. Granted, it only generates a few milliwatts, but power is power. Potentially, this could increase battery life of tablets or smart phones. Piezoelectric devices that harvest power from small motions for relatively energy-lite applications could have a better future than those things you see that try to harvest power from footsteps. Germany's EnOcean has developed technology that captures the kinetic energy from someone flipping a light switch. The power is strong enough to send a signal from the light switch to a networked light bulb to flip on a light. The end result is a light switch without wires.

It's on display this week at Ceatec, a large consumer electronics show outside of Tokyo. Energy is one of the big themes. I'm here heading up a committee to find some of the more promising technologies.