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Foot-Powered Laptop
mrd98 writes: "There is an article in the Register about a U.S. developer who has created a foot-powered device which can be used to charge laptop batteries. Apparently 5 minutes of brisk pumping will give you 20 minutes of battery life, it can also be used to power most other electrical devices with a rechargable battery."
...finally getting those damn things in our shoe soles. Charge while you walk!
Charging my laptop. Honest!
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Apparently 5 minutes of brisk pumping will give you 20 minutes of battery life
Think of what this could do for the sex toy industry.
*sigh* I can't believe I've stooped this low.
El riesgo vive siempre!
BULLY1:"WTF is wrong with his leg?"
BULLY2:"Oh he is a geek LETS GET HIM!"
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
This looks like it has a lot of promise... not so much for regular use so much as emergencies. Laptops have some pretty high power drain sometimes... I'd imagine that a device that can power one for 4 times it owns usage time must require a good deal of input power, aka, work (or the dreaded e (exercise) word).
-- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
As a diehard Emacs bigot I'd prefer Control and Meta pedals.
Apparently 5 minutes of brisk pumping will give you 20 minutes of battery life
For me, 2 minutes then it's nap time...
help reduce the fatness of your favourite geek... buy them one of these...
Think about it. All those tech workers who are looking for a job now can get a job to keep up the laptops of office workers up and running.
Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and private
I suppose this could be good for long hiking trips for people who just have to get their email fix.
That would kind of defeat the purpose of a hiking trip, though.
So, it's true... in the future the machines really will turn us into living power sources.
Despite what EULAs say, most software is sold, not licensed.
this would be cool for airline use for those long flights. Bringing a couple spare batteries would be better, since I can see the annoyed faces of the other passengers around you. Kinda like that stupid airline commercial where the cattl..er passengers all cross their legs at the same time...
Sent from your iPad.
Also....looking at some of the people this would be marketed to, that five minutes of vigorous activity...man that could be a killer. I would think something like those crank powered radios would work....use the crank or pedal to wind a spring to get that five minutes of power. Or use a nice sized flywheel in there to help it. Should be interesting to see what happens with this.....
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&o
...this should also take care of Thrombophlebitis a condition of blood clotting in the legs when they do not move enough... Great for those aging geeks!
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
...of that Tech Support story (urban legend?) in which someone called saying that their computer was broken. When the tech support guy asked to describe the problem, the person said that they pressed on the foot pedal but the computer wouldn't come on. The foot pedal, of course, turned out to be the mouse...
Reminder: find a new sig
The article points out that the device has military applications (one of which is detonating land mines).
Accordingly we may expect that trying to carry one of these babies past airport security may result in a trip to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay. For those not old enough to remember, back when hijacking was "chic" (late sixties, early 70's) before the terrorists got involved, the most common hijacker demand was "Take this plane to Cuba"
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
Windows takes 20 minutes to boot.
To charge your laptop, dumbass.
Wow, incredible ... i just can't emagine how to explain your staff/chef that you've got to pump it up =)
Life sucks.
Guys typically take shorter to reach orgasm [not speaking for myself here ;)]. women need more time 'at-it'. this solves that issue. guys do a brisk pumping for 5 minutes. put that battery into you-know-what and the women get to go at it for 20 minutes. didn't solve world hunger. but very close. very close.
This sound like a great idea. Just combine it with a solar power charger, a sattelite phone, and you'll be able to get online anywhere in the world. :-)
There's also the hand cranked cellphone for when you need a workout for your arms.
/Styx
"Apparently 5 minutes of brisk pumping will give you 20 minutes of battery life"
Darn, there's so much "brisk pumping" that occurs naturally in society-- wouldn't it be more efficient if we could somehow capture the energy from that?
Wonderful! Now, when my grandmother is knitting me a sweater with her foot-pedeled sewing machine, she can power my laptop too!
This is the answer for XP's peers development utilization question. As one developer would be coding, the second would be pumping up the battery -- no more questionable waist of developers' valuable time by just watching over the coder.
Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and private
I think it would be great if this device were designed to accept your normal outlet plugs so you plug whatever you want into it without having to buy some kind of adapter... but i guess that means the company loses money on selling you adapters for your gear.. ie: adapter for your ipaq, adapter for your phone.
To go along with your foot-powered laptop, you might want to check out the Freecharge windup generator due out for Motorola cellphones this quarter. It won a Time Product of the Year citation.
"It remains to be seen if the human brain is powerful enough to solve the problems it has created." Dr. Richard Wallace
5 minutes out of every 25 must be spent charging. Ok that means you end up wasting 12 minutes out of every hour. I'd say this is much less than I end up wasting on other things like solitaire, minesweeper. PLUS, you get exercise out of it! Sign me up!
"The StepCharger weighs 10.5 ounces and is roughly the size of a paperback book; it can be used to charge anything from satellite phones to digital cameras and video cameras, as well as laptops. "
I was just thinking such a device could possible adapted to fit on the bottom of your shoes. That way the activity of walking or running could be used to generate power instead of pumping standing still. Man, I must have hit a nerve with someone who's chips and dip ran out or something.
Seems like a rather low yield to me - my grandfather used to sell Singer sewing machines, and has an amazing collection of antiques.
Among them are two treadle style, with a large two-foot pedal, and a long band to transfer the power. That sucker got going REALLY fast, with a lot of momentum. Admittedly, it was all iron as well.
It just seems to me that five minutes of pumping that sucker would have given me about 2 hours worth of laptop power!
You come into work and they've cut every last possible person they can. But they still need cut backs. Next cut, the electric company. The company figures it can save money while keeping it's employees in shape. So 2 of these at every desk. Your required to pump 2 hours a day at first so you can work. It will be raised to 4 or 5 though because the executives will decide they don't want to do it and make you do thier pumping for them. We'll all still be skinny or overweight geeks but well have thighs and calves of steel.
If your not cheating your not trying. If your not trying your not winning and if your not winning why play?
A small 5k race could power a Beowulf cluster!
Alright!
Sit back and relax as Windows 98 installs on your computer.
Vigorous pumping? Legs? Excercise? All to use my laptop? hah
prosebeforehos.com
and laptop users will be the fittest people on the planet! I can see conversations now...
"Hey, Bob, your son is really getting big and strong!"
"Yeah, Steve, he's going to be as strong one day as a computer programmer! Maybe even as fit as a linux kernel hacker!"
"You don't say?"
The thing is OK and all, but I really prefer a three-footed version--
To answer The Obvious Comment:
What would a Beowulf cluster be like of these?
The Rockettes. The noise would be a bitch, but they'd be enough spare juice to light half of Manhattan.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
I'll finally have a legitimate excuse for constantly tapping my foot while I'm sitting down. Take that, $whiner.
The Amish can recharge their batteries.
Could solve Californias energy problems
An additional battery weighs about the same (both are around 300g).
Am I the only one with a habit of shaking my foot/leg nervously? I could put that to use!
Fighting the War on the War on Drugs.
http://smokedot.org/
There are a lot of things your clothes do to absorb energy that you don't notice. You don't want the soles of your shoes to be too springy, for example. If you can put some of the absorbed energy to good use instead of turning it into heat, you'd never notice the difference.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Though Compaq Australia tried to announce something like this before.
http://slashdot.org/articles/99/04/01/0158234.shtm l
- passion
I'd have a hard time justifying $150 to recharge a battery with manual labor, when a spare battery can be bought for most devices for a lot less. (especially a cell phone, etc)
Besides, if i'm away from a power outlet of some sort for THAT long of a time, a nice break from the electronics is appreciated.
Sorry, theres only one thing I pump briskly for 5 minutes and I certainly don't get a 20 minute charge out of it.
And if the wall has no power right now, or there is no wall? You're going to feel really silly there with a dying battery and your line-powered charger.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
Kindof gives the movie "Sneakers" a whole new meaning :)
I will bend your mind with my spoon
Or anything like that?
Because that would just give the dog one more reason to affix itself to my leg...
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Not exactly sure how I could use it, although it's an intersting concept. If it generated more power, then it'd sure be something.
Imagine... laptops chained around your neck swinging around, generating battery life.
Who needs a pedal!?
So you see, this is not a light event at all - All from having programmers that are physically fit, too.
Don't buy one!!!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
How about shoes which generate power from your step? That way you can be charging while you are getting someplace.
If you are foot-pumping, you have to pay attention in order to keep pumping, and it can really get tedious. Walking is second nature, so you can ignore the fact that you are charging your laptop and it seems like less of a chore.
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
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If 5 min. of foot pumping gives you 20 min. of battery life it seems to me that 20 min. of typing on the keyboard should give me 5 min. of extra battery life. I preface a keyboard solution as I won't have to think about the act.
Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and private
think the mouse is the foot pedal for their computer.
UL points = 1
"For a successful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." -Feynman
Another article about generating electrical power from piezoelectric implants in your shoes was posted back in June. Can't say which I'd prefer: constant "trickle" charging from walking around, or Richard Simmons-style express charging ;)
Read my keyboard review.
So by extension, if this device gives the equivalent of wall-socket power, you should be able to recharge the battery while you work (like plugging in your laptop and working), thus obviating the "this wastes 1/5 of your time" argument posted several times above. After all, if N minutes of pedaling gives you 4N minutes of charge, then the battery is charging faster than it's draining, right?
Freedom: "I won't!"
Another approach is to store the power in a wind-up spring, which turns a generator that supplies your power. There's been interest in this approach for years, but it never seems to go anywhere. Probably most people would rather look for a power outlet than turn a crank.
I wouldn't let you pump my laptop!
Great, now people will be complaining about the iMac not having a second mouse button or foot pedal.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
New Gold Bond Foot Powdered Laptop!
Why is Grand Theft Auto a much more serious crime than Reckless Driving?
I think the military one is made for walking, the civilian one seems made for stationary pumping stationary pumping. And honestly this doesn't seem to be a huge "Revolution" as this just uses a small generator like design (like those hand pumped flashlights). Now if they made those piezo-electric generator shoes or insoles, that would be cool.
Pump up your laptop battery and get tackled because the passengers or flight attendants think you're trying to light your shoes on fire, Boy Scout style.
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
Can't we harness all the energy we're putting into hitting all of these keys to good use? What about generating electricity from typing?
Heck, at least the energy I've spent typing this message would actually be worth something then...
Maybe people in this country would lose weight!
~ now you know
Why are we devolving back to pedal-operated machines? What about solar, &c. energy supplies?
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.
It wouldn't have to be a platform in the platform shoe style. Nike made a shoe that had an extention on the toe only a while ago that was for running in place. Something along those lines would be what I was thinking. BUT, apparently talking about shoes with a pump that recharge electronics is completely offtopic to an article about a device you pump, with your foot, to charge electronics (as the article states, not the /. posting).
It's more usually a sign of stress. It's only (paranoid) schizophrenia when you're tapping your foot because the FBI just passed a message into your brain that if you don't tap your foot they will take you out with their orbital "laser".
graspee
Maybe we could see something similar for computers. If you want to play Track and Field on MAME, you have to get on the treadmill for half an hour and run for real.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
From the website:
:), or buy 2 of them when they'll reach 3rd generation with 15W output.. you'll look like your pedalling at your desk... heh...
Output Power: 0 to 6 Watts / 18 Volts Direct Current (DC18V)
Funny, my laptop draws about 30W of power... I don't know if he talks about powering a PDA or a laptop, but in the case of most modern laptops with almost gigahertz processors with 3d graphics chips and dvd players and 40GB hdd, all of which are power-optimized of course, but still eating a few watts here left and right, it adds up pretty quickly.
Just look at the power rating of your battery, 5000mA/hr 12Volts for example, the battery lasts about 2 hours, if you do quick maths, 5A/hr @ 12 Volts gives you 60Watts/hr, which obvioulsy means you can plug 60Watts power for about 1hr then the battery dies, so effectively, 30W for 2 hours is about right. Now if that device can output 0 to 6 watts, let's take the best case scenario... 6 watts... you'd have to pump 10 hours to keep 2 hours on your laptop.
Unless you're running on a 486 with 10.4 DSTN LCD, I don't see how this is really practical for modern computers... unless you plug the whole office on this to power the server and keep the employees in shape
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
Apparently 5 minutes of brisk pumping will give you 20 minutes of battery life
5 minutes of brisk pumping will give you...other things as well.
"The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance." -Thomas Jefferson
The human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTU's of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion, the machines had found all the energy they would ever need.
Most programmers are much better at pumping briskly with their right hand.
Dejan
Is there any way that we could all get hooked up to the public power grid? (I guess we'd have to make the public power grid actually public first.)
Imagine millions of people pumping their feet to save on electricity bills, all in distributed.net fashion.
Experiment!
A third exercise to add to my book, "Fitness for Computer Geeks."
For the curious, the other two are:
the 21" monitor lift and Luser-Aviodance cubicle racing.
..People'll try to pedal just about anything.
I'll be here all week - don't forget to tip your waitresses!
DoC
*Earthquake*
If you have an infinite number of monkeys pumping an infinite number of generators generating electricity for an infinite number of CD players then Michael Bolton will still be a no talent ass clown.
Pumping up the volume takes on a whole new meaning.
Maybe they can make a pelvic thrust model. It's marital aid AND an electrical generator.
Cat
So what if I'm lame and tired. At least I didn't make a beowolf cluster of vibrators joke.
Power a city with some of these attached to the feet of some NY marathon runners!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Linux takes 20 minutes to boot.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
It might hurt to shift into gear when I drive, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna allow my computer to take my ability to walk too!
My brother has for a long time been saying that wherever you have a captive, seated audience you could be generating lots of power.
Think about all those long car trips you took with your family when you were younger. Just imagine how much power you could have produced.
Think movie theatres, assuming it could be made quiet enough.
Think lecture halls.
Think if it could just be springy material which generated a current (there was something about a shoe with that in the sole a while ago I think), then you could put in commonly walked on sections of pavement, or in houses.
While individually, or at once you wouldn't generate any great amount of power, over time with a good battery, and enough people it would start to add up.
-Etan
Finally, checkout clerks will have one huge calf muscle to match their one large bicep.
Wheeeee!!! More RSI! :)
Obviously invented by someone who never had to inflate any airbeds with a footpump... 15 minutes of brisk pumping an hour - ouch. You won't last a day...
This could be a killer app: harness the power of my swift kicks to the case when it freezes.
Finally a reason to load Windows!
The article mentions they'd be useful on airplanes. First, have fun explaining that one when going through the security checkpoint. Second, everyone sitting around you on the plane would be just thrilled about it; they'd probably ask the flight attendants if there are any empty seats available near a screaming baby or a jumping 4-year-old.
...and thighs of steel.
I wonder if the Amish could then legally use these then? I know some of the local Amish (mid-east Ohio) are allowed to use compressor powered tools and can even have one business related outlet. Heck they are even sold wind-up radios (hey when the lady friend drags you antiquing you see some of these things). It seemed that they were already skirting their technology ban. Why not just take it to the next ludicrous level?
What is music when you despise all sound?
This is obviously technology developed by Starbucks to sell more coffee.
This is the Internet. You can say "fuck" here. - AC
The most obvious application would be to donate these to obese [Linux|FreeBSD|Windows|etc.] developers.
Seriously, though; these would be excellent for people in those places without electricity. (With that sort of economy, though, I somehow doubt that a laptop computer would be within their budget.)
Do you like German cars?
However, with an electric ink screen instead of a backlit LCD display, and some frugal software requiring less CPU and memory, 5 minutes of pumping could probably get you 2 hours worth of play.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
I think they just copied the wind up radio idea that the US used for proaganda in Afganistan. Applying the idea to a laptop doesn't really warrant being called an invention.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10);'
I would be in much better shape if I was forced to power my computer with muscle-generated electricity.
Think of the health benefits if all of our electonic devices had to be muscle-powered. Couch potatoes would become musclebound, or would get lazy and read more, which is also good.
Internet addicts like myself could get some aerobic activity on a treadmill to power up our 'net surfing.
evanchik.net
if they are doing this, why not try to gain some power from the keyboard. I mean, we type quite a bit, make a bit of resistance and convert it and you dont even have to do anything extra. And we'll have extra strong fingers! seriously though, this would be a good idea. why not right?
So that kid on the plane with the Apple playing "Who Let the Dogs Out" was just giving a beat to power to.
mlylecarlin
So that kid on the plane with the Apple playing "Who Let the Dogs Out" was just giving [himself] a beat to power to. mlylecarlin
I guess you haven't tried Tantric pumping. It charges you up for hours at a time.
This is somewhat offtopic, but it relates in the aspect of power creation.
:)
Why haven't we created some sort of system along our many many miles of interstates where the vehicles pass over a power generator of sorts? For example, back in the day when you arrived at a filling station, a hose on the ground rang a bell using compressed air. Unless I am totally misunderstanding this system, work is performed by the weight of the vehicle. Why not put these on the roads and have mini substations to collect the energy? I don't mean rubber hoses of course, simply a system that collects energy from weight, like a hydraulic reservoir that gets compressed and pushes on a miniature generator. I don't think we'd want them ringing bells but we certainly could harness this "free" power. There would be costs involved in upkeep and construction, but one would think that the benefits would outweigh these costs.
Another possibility is to put simlar devices in sidewalks that create some sort of power that can be used for things like street lights.
It just seems that in our quest for power sources, we are missing the obvious ones. Let us use what is already working.
It seems reasonable to me, so I'll be waiting for the reasons why these things can't happen.
-= Why can't I add 'Anonymous Coward' to my list of Foes? =-
You know what's better than stomping away like an animal on this contraption? Letting Mother Nature do the work for you by getting a solar panel for your laptop. Not only are they cheaper than this thing, but they don't involve looking like an idiot to passersby. I promise I'm not affiliated with this company. I just thought I'd provide an example so that you folks know what I'm talking about.
Some interesting research into human-powered computer systems has been done at MIT Media Lab. Here are some links:
Before you know it we'll all be wired for sound, uh MPEG-3. Stph
The latest issue of Fine Woodworking has a short article about an Amish woodworking shop that is powered by a diesel engine driving a big pump to run a bunch of hydraulic motors. All of the machines in the shop had been retrofitted with hydraulic motors. It seems the Amish gent who owns the shop, doesn't use electricity, but has no problem with using heavy machinery. Cost runs about $40/day and the diesel heats the shop as well.
"I his bow, and spun and wove, likes you." Vere de Vere out of my mould's mouth dragged me of the voluntary apes.
/.ers in the UK will know what I mean - now we'll have the New Improved Wanker On The Train This Morning - shouting "I'm just 'avin' a quick pump!" obnoxiously loudly into a mobile phone while frantically charging up his laptop. I can see it now:
"Cause of death, constable?"
"Being a complete tosser, if you ask me, sir."
Chuck Norris: Socialism == a thousand years of darkness.
Anybody noticed that there seems to be a problem with the claims presented here?
It seems odd that the charging rate of a personal electromechanical device could exceed that of the power grid, no?
Especially when you notice that the foot pump only produces 6 watts (max) while last time I checked my laptop easily drains above 15 watts of energy.
The article claims 6 Watts of power output.
My previous laptop used about 20W, my current one has a spec stating over 60W on the bottom.
So for a reasonable laptop (25W), it would be more like 20 minutes of pumping would give you 5 minutes of battery life...
Roger.