It would be fantastic to be safe in the knowledge you’d never have a flat battery on your phone again.
A team of Students/researchers at Wisconsin-Madison University are working on a solution, that could revolutionise the way we power are smart phones, iPods and other much needed gasgets. They are working on an inspirational electronic shoe that captures some of the energy captured in each footprint when walking and storing the energy in a clever customised soul that houses the elctronics.
Tom Krupenkin and his team have been working on various mechanical engineering projects that aim to take the energy from manual tasks and store it.
Tom Krupenkin, the professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Theoretical estimates show that it can produce up to 10 watts per shoe, and that energy is just wasted as heat. A total of 20 watts from walking is not a small thing, especially compared to the power requirements of the majority of modern mobile devices.”
To capture the human created power, the need a device that harvests at high frequency, there solution is called electrowetting, it uses a system that doesn’t need moving parts it’s called a bubbler, Two specially designed plates with a a conductive liquid between them. There are minute holes in the lower plate this allows gas to escape through when you walk, these create bubbles that then burst and create the energy…easy!
Look forward to when these are available in the shops, great concept.
Further info at slashgear.com/