Here's one use you never thought your microwave could be used for: charging your phone! However, putting it inside like the pic above isn't how its going to be done.

Instead, the researchers from the University of Tokyo worked on many ways to harvest wasted energy that microwaves produce. While heating, they would continuously lose energy that could be put to better use.

So engineer Yoshihiro Kawahara and his research team have designed a machine to gather and recycle that wasted energy.

The harvester uses an antenna to pick up any excess energy and then channels it to other devices. But don't get your hopes up high just yet. Federal regulations limit the amount of energy that is allowed to leak from a microwave to "far below the level known to harm people," according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Still, initial tests from Kawahara found that running a microwave for two minutes generated enough to power kitchen devices like a timer with small batteries but only for a few minutes.

Would you charge your phone with a microwave?