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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'."
"ActiveSuspension"? When did Microsoft get into making cars!?!?!
Have they released the IntelliAirbags and DirectSmog drivers yet? :-)
---
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
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
This reminds me of a guy I knew that wanted to build an electric car with genrators running off all the wheels.. He figured that would let his car run forever for free. ..This must have been before the discovery of friction.
air and light and time and space
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!"
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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.