Slashdot Mirror
Piezoelectric Shoe Power
pedestrian writes: "Computer.org the IEEE site has an excellent, quite detailed, article about using 'a flexible piezoelectric foil stave to harness sole-bending energy and a reinforced PZT dimorph to capture heel-strike energy' and its potential to power 'wearable microelectronics'."
How would you like to be on the receiving end of one of those shocks? *scuff*scuff*scuff* ZAP *
My first thought was, "Wait a minute: the piezos generate electricity when they are being squished by your feet. Cars ride along horizontally." Then I realized that cars bounce up and down all the time. What about attaching piezos to the shock absorbers?
Transcript show: self sigs atRandom.
to drinking your own waste ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
--
Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.
Indeed, although that was just using the forward motion of the foot to move water. This generates electricity.
-- Veni, vidi, dormivi
Will they use this to complement The Pump(tm)? Will you be able to generate power by pumping yourself? Or will you be able to generate anime-style power-blasts by jumping after pumping yourself?
--
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Hmm, how about laying piezo electric mats on the roads. With all the cars driving over them, they would surely produce enough power for LED based traffic lights?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
If the device was actually in the shoe, I don't see a lot of demand. Who really wants a wire running from their shoe to somewhere else on your body. So I'd be all for a Maxwell Smart-ish "Shoe Phone" that never needed charging... But wiring my pager to my shoe, or strapping a couple double-A batteries to the back seems less than desireable.
The other question is, how many of us geeks actually spend most of the day on their feet. Might be a good thing, we'd be in better shape as a whole... "Gotta run, battery's dead"
don't you remember walking around with your socks on building up static electricity to shock your little sister with.
I don't use eleetism in my Email
How about making sidewalks out of piezo electric materials, or the walls and floor of any room where you have athletics or even loud sounds ?
Roadways anyone ? You could sandwich piezoelectric materials in between layers of asphalt to help power street lights at least.
Only thing stopping you is ummm...practiciality.
But if the materials were cheap enough, well then it would be interesting at least. We may be able to generate significant power if this was deployed over wide areas.
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
I was thinking keyboards. Not so much the dreaded "windows" key, but if attached to the 10 most commonly used letters...rstlnecmda...
Maybe next they'll have piezoelectric seats to "harness the butt-pressure energy"?
---
me@host> cc -o program program.c
cc: compilation success
me@host> run program
system: this program requires more power. Now YOU have to run. Run Forest, run!
:wq
I've always felt that the fringes of applied science tended to produce all sorts of neat advances, and keep the field as a whole from stagnating. Weird science* is good for the soul!
And you can always tell that you're reading about weird science if you find yourself looking at the date, just to make sure that it wasn't published on April 1st.
In other words, good on em!
* Or weird applications of normal science. Take your pick.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
...2 points modded down for a redundant post posted #4 at no more than 2 minutes after the story goes up and no more than a minute after the redundant joke?
--
dman123 forever!
--
dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
now if it was a piezoelectric condom, that could be really something. We could put the electricity back into the energy grid and there would never be any shortage of power...
You can't handle the truth.
Well it give us Americans the perfect excuse to go out and exersize. So what if everyone in China wore a pair of these shoes, climbed up on a chair and jumped down to the floor?
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
FLAMEBAIT?!?! Moderators, please get a sense of humor, ok? Please?
The confused should read my parent.
April Fool's Day aleady?
---
This
What about attaching piezos to the shock absorbers?
Or somehow combining them with tires. There is some squishing going on there as you drive.
---
What about those of us who spend most of the day sitting at a desk? How about some way of harnessing the energy expended in depressing the keys on my laptop? That might be easier to do -- and it doesn't involve having to wear something.
Another problem: Wear & tear. I've noticed that in only a few months, I typically wear my heels down on one side. Wonder if these researchers might be interested in development of tougher heel materials?
The article mentions that only a small amount of power can be extracted from the shoe without impacting comfort. However, there might be a case made for extracting large amounts of energy: after all, when I go to the gym, I am deliberately trying to expend energy and get my heart rate up. Tapping into that for recharging a battery could be helpful for that.
I wonder how much energy could be extracted from the pulse... And then there is body heat...
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
Well, I own a set of K2 Ski that do the same thing, using the energy building up to flash a little light on the Ski. It is supposed to be dampening the Ski, I see it as a toy (looks funny while night skiing). Nevertheless, there is a substantial amount of energy building up that could be used differently. I think it is a nice idea, but there are many problems to solve ...
I would like a shoe that stores up sole-bending energy to help me go up hills. More than I would want to waste it running my wrist watch or somethin'.
Ok, maybe generating power in shoes is feasible, even if it is geeky. But, gas-powered underwear is where I absolutely draw the line.
...fields that capture energy of ribcage expansion and contraction due to breathing. After all, when you're sitting, you're still breathing. When you're sleeping, you're still breathing! So the mechanism would be able to generate power off a physical activity you never stop doing.
(apologies to Frank Herbert for blatantly ripping this idea off the stillsuits in Dune)
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
With the damage we do to our knees and hips walking and jogging on unnaturally hard surfaces like concrete and normal flooring, I wonder if there is any (minor as it may be) benefit to this sort of system from a shock-absorbing standpoint?
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
I know! Stick a tube down everyone's throat to supply them with food, water, and sedatives, then pack them side-by-side in oxygen bottles, and collect their heat and bioelectricity.
We could create a virtual reality world for them to inhabit, and jack it directly into their cortex. It would consume infinitesimally as much energy as the real one.
We could create AIs to help manage them. If we make the AIs smart enough, the AI's could be self-managing, freeing the rest of us up to enter the virtual world, too.
--Blair
"Man. You think the Internet is addicting..."
> and ground half a pond of coffee off each visitor
Woah. That's a lot of coffee. =)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You just described one part of "active suspension" technology, IIRC.
--
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
"What's the power of the tires you want with the car ?"
Harnessed unobtrusively, this wasted energy could be used in a variety of low-power applications, such as pagers, health monitors, self-powered emergency receivers, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and emergency beacons or locators
So, if you have a heart attack and stop walking, your health monitor and emergency beacon will lose power?
- Palm Pilot - lighter than paper copies of maps, trailguides, and light reading.
- A Digital Watch - Although those will run for years on a small light battery anyway
- A Cell Phone - Anybody have any experience with solar powered batteries, which is what I'm currently planning?
- A flashlight - Just a mini-mag-light, but it would be nice not to have to carry extra batteries
If there were something like this available by the time I leave, I would get it in a heartbeat. Hiking all day with a heavy pack would create more than enough energy for a couple hours of palm pilot use and a phone call or two.Of course they say "an ounce on your foot is like a pound on your back", so it might be better just to carry two extra AA batteries anyway. And of course if I'm carrying too much the palm pilot and the phone would be the first things to get mailed home.
I recall seeing this device featured on television in that show hosted by Alan Alda. It was at MIT where someone showed a "computer" that collected energy from a piezoelectric component placed in the arc of the shore. With the stored energy it had the capability of trasmitting some information (a business card type thing) to another such device using the wearer's body as an antena and the user's handshake with the user of another such device as both the trigger and means to do so.
Sadly the first application will be to power the little red LEDs that are in the shoes the kids in my neighborhood wear when playing basketball.
--Ty
to play Dance Dance Revolution! 8) Depending on how luck you are you could theoritcally power a small computer with a few nickels.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Now they will be jumping up and down in line in front of you while you are waiting to get your #1 meal at McDonalds.
Power a synthesizer to emit squeaks from shoes
To power, um, a small video camera on the toe of your, um, shoe, um, which faces upward
Power turnsignals for mall walkers
Li'l Bastard Elektr-O-Shok(tm) static build and zapper kit
"Is that a PDA with video capture in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Go-go gadget boots!
/*drunk.. fix later*/
It would be great for all the kids in elementary school, too. "I'm not fidgeting, I'm charging my Palm Pilot!"
--
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Mount a powerful spring on your door, so that all guests are forced to contribute a few newtonmeters. (This idea was introduced by the late Andre Franquin in his comic books on Gaston Lagaffe. Gaston pressed a glass of fresh orange use, and ground half a pond of coffee off each visitor. )
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
Governor Gray Davis belives he can solve California's energy crisis, if he can a) get all Californians to wear these shoes, and b) organize a state-wide conga line.
A spokesperson for Caltech claims that by improving on poorly made MIT technology they were able to improve their skills simply by employing mobile computing devices. The helmet shields displayed all necessary information including which taunts were the most effective, the current play, and an overhead view of the field.
Not all the students at Caltech are happy though. Todd M. is quoted as saying, "This gives a distinct advantage to healthy people who are willing to walk, or, god-forbid, run. This encouragement of healthy behavior is clearly against everything that nerds have stood up (or more importantly sat-down) for all these years.
Still, the celebrations are continuing with signs all over the campus advertising "Free (as in beer) Beer!"
No Zen is good zen
to the word "Sneakernet".
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
With this soul-bending energy, we can match the likes of Microsoft blow-for-blow in this titanic struggle for the very souls of people everywhe....
Oh, you said _sole_ bending energy. Well I guess that's cool too.
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
The Electric Shoe Company in England has piezo-generating shoes on sale. Somebody wore them thru the desert for 100KM abd they worked great. The power level is enough to power cell phones!
Missed it by THAT MUCH.
m00.