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Using Vibrations as a Power Source

Posted by michael on from the shake-up-the-system dept.

FnH writes "The Inquirer is reporting that Hitachi has developed a technology capable of generating electricity from natural vibrations. While the amount of electricity generated is small, it could be used in sensors to relay data wirelessly to a computer."

2 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Not much info... by Drakker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The article doesnt go into details... but what if we start to mass produce them? Would my computer fan emit enough vibration to get some energy? What about hearthbeats?

    Could we put some of them under the most used roads or on wind mills? (spinning would emit vibrations, the wind too).

    I'm pretty sure that even if they dont produce much energy, a LOT of them would produce a lot of energy, vibrations are waves and they can go through a lot of those devices before beign too weak to produce any energy.

  2. Useless as vibration detection? by Kasoni · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are already motion detectors and orientation arrays (for example the clasic ball in a cage). Why would one that creates electricity be of any use? Not to mention what would it be useful for since any vibration would set it off (maybe nice for blinking lights or letting the computer know you are moving the drawing pen for you digital drawing pad, but what else?) That comment about putting them under roads is great, but how about IN cars and busses? Line the frame and they could create a load of energy. These can be used in addition to any current way of getting energy (coal-burnning plants have huge turbines that create both a lot of sound and shaking, perfect for these). You could even go so far as to line walls with them and sell it as a light energy saver and noice reducer. Hook it into the main and it will help to reduce energy useage, heck if it makes enough you could even sell off the extrea to the power company :) The only problem is making them efficent and durable enough to be worth the price and produce large enough amounts of electricity to be worth using.