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Using Air to Recharge Your Cell Phone
sanspeak writes "Now you do not have to look for a power outlet to charge your cell phones. Department of Industrial Design at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi have come up with a mobile turbine which generates around 3 to 4 watts of energy - sufficient to charge a mobile phone. It costs around $4, fits in your pocket and runs on air ;-). What else do you want ?"
First impression of "in your pocket and runs on air" is this is charged by hydrocarbon emissions, i.e.
Logically followed by The device is best suited for coastal areas where the wind flows almost continuously.They must eat more lentils there...
"ahhhhh, go blow yer phone!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Why not use Faraday's Principle of Induction like these LED torches or a windup charger? Both are independent of external factors.
Hanging out your phone from a car, bus or (shock!) train is pretty dangerous stuff, maybe superman will find this thing handy.
I hope they haven't patented this technology yet, 'cos I'm rolling out my air-powered fan next month.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
I can't wait to see people blowing into their phones before they make a call, unless they do what the article recommends:
The device will help mobile phone users charge their phones while travelling in a bus, a car or a train. All they need to do is -- place the turbine against the wind flow.
In other words, hold it out the window. Can they get sued when people drop their phones, or lose an arm while holding it out the window?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
What about us people who never leave the house?
Great.. A cell phone that charges by air. Now all I need is a light weight air compressor with an efficiency greater than unity and I'll never have to plug my phone in again! At least, I won't have to plug it into anything aside from the turbine and the perpetual motion machine.
I still prefer the alternator strapped to a cat with a slice of buttered toast strapped to its back.
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
Does it run linux?
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
"It costs around $4, fits in your pocket and runs on air"
Is that a turbine in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
I once thought that it might be an interesting idea to store compressed air in a tank and then let it out at a controlled rate to run a turbine.
In essence, the compressed air tank would be a battery (it would 'hold' the energy that was used to pump the compressed air in).
I don't know a lot of about high pressure tanks. Does anyone know if this would work at all? Would all the air come out too quick to make it worthwhile?
We've seen hand cranking chargers, now windmill charging... How long until someone packages and sells a DIY Dam & Hydroelectric Cell Charging kit?
Also, I understand that Iran is currently importing plutonium from Russia in an attempt to make a personal, portable nuclear reactor capable of charging cell phones.
I'm a big tall mofo.
How long does it take to charge, and wouldn't you have to leave it somewehre with a constant air flow? Like, outside, or in front of a fan, or does it strap to your side so it uses the breeze when you walk?
I can just imagine someone talking and their battery's about to die, and all the other person on the other end hears is "Wait, my phone is dying...hold on a sec *blowing sound* Ok, now where were we..*blowing sound*...Oh yes, about the *blowing sound*..."
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
I think it might be a little more correct to substitute "wind power" for "air" in the writeup.
Essentially, the idea is to incorporate a windmill to power the phone.
Saying the phone is "Air" powered implys (to me, at least) that some chemical reaction is taking place using oxygen or nitrogen.
It is a cool idea, and the article implies that normal winds are sufficient to power the cell phone.
If the generator is small enough to actually be part of a cell phone, I'd think that scaling the design up might make economic sense for generating normal electric power. Unfortunately, there weren't any specifics, so it is tough to make any extrapolations.
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
I just realized, there are other good uses for "blow phones" too: simply add a breathalyzer to avoid those embarrassing late night drunken calls to your ex.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Tell me why if this model produces 3 - 4 watts of energy why they can't cover the blades of larger windmills with these things or better yet design the blades so they have edge holes with these things inside.
The wind blows the large blades which causes air to flow through the smaller fans.
Of course you could probably put up walls of these things in windy areas and get the same results.
Any thoughts on this?
"Bah!" - Dogbert
What else do you want?
Summaries that are closer to the reality of the article.
It costs around $4.
"The technique is not yet commercialised but the department has sent a proposal to the ministry of science and technology to help manufacture the turbine on a large scale, Das said."
They sell radios that can be charged by turning a crank, why not sell a cell phone charger that works that way?
"What else do you want?"
-wind?
Compressed air is an interesting idea for storing energy.
But I have to wonder how it compares to the alternatives.
How about a capacitor bank and a hand-crank generator?
If you're out of compressed gas or batteries in the middle of nowhere it's hard to replenish your cell phone. Turning a hand crank would make use of cheap, available human power.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Replenish your airtime with.. uhm.. some air time!
----
http://mentalfloss.ca - Free music that doesn't suck
... how people travel in India.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Why? Because people are suckers.
there's this physics law that sais air gets hot when you compress it. If the tank is not insulated it will cool down to room temperature again and you lose quite some energy. There are however examples, there is even a car which runs on compressed air, and in the good old days of steam, they used comp. air locomotives e.g. in ammo factories and other places where you might want to avoid fire.
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
That's $1 per watt, which is the holy grail of renewable energy technologies, being the approximate cost of conventional power plants.
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They're not talking about hanging the things out of car windows. A 12V adapter would be better for that, anyway.
Instead, they're expecting that typical environmental wind, especially that found on coasts, will work well enough. The idea is to ease communications access to areas without convenient electricity. (Mountain climbing, anyone?)
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That was really funny. It would be good for people who run in rodeos and then go home and ranch their cattle because there is a lot of wind on the praire and they would be riding around on horses, which is a lot of fun.
The wind would blow, and then the battery would get really recharged. They could talk forever:
Sample conversation
Customer service: This is a Sprint customer service person, how may help you?
Cowboy Neal: I would like to order some pizza
?
Customer service: This is not a pizza place, this is Sprint Customer service
Cowboy Neal: Oh, sorry, I just pressed some random buttoms because my battery is really charged up.
Customer service: Oh you have one of those new air chargers, those are really cool
Neal: Yeah, I like them a lot.
Sprint customer service: Hey have you played Zelda: The wind waker?
Cow Boy Neal: I hear it is awesome.
Sprint person: Can you hear me now.
Cow Boy Neal: Yes.
Can you blow on it like a whistle to charge it?
Adolfo
I have a hundred of these, mounted on the roof of my Prius. Next...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
.... then we could have an electric powered car which recharges the battery automatically.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
... to charge your phone from your car's battery!
Paul B.
No, but I have a go-cart that's powered by my own sense of self-satisfaction...
Required reading for internet skeptics
Now if your cell battery starts to get low while chatting to your friend while driving, you can just crank up your A/C, roll down your window, and hold one arm out the window while you eat and change the radio station with the other.
Or for when your battery is a little low, but you just really need to call someone - you can blow on your phone for a few minutes, then pass the phone to a friend (if you have any left) and they can call 911 since you're hyperventilating.
Seriously, in public transportation - of the times when you can hold your phone up to a window - you might want to purchase some tshirts that say "I'm an idiot, steal my expensive phone after I get off the bus". Any other times, you should be able to find a much more efficient and timely manner of charging your phone. Windows down + A/C up == your car is burning excess energy.
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
NO IT IS NOT!!!!!! AUUGH!!!!
Okay, I'm sorry.. I just can't take it anymore. This is not an innovation by any stretch of the imagination (you say "portable turbine", I say "little windmill"). Second, the application and practicality are extremely limited. Let's look at the scenarios.
Scenario 1: You live someplace windy Supposing you take this turbine, stick out your window that receives good airflow in an area that has *continuous* wind (let's say you live in a lighthouse). Given the average cost of electricity, It'll take 25 hours of contuous charging to save yourself one penny. If this thing costs $4, it'll take 10,000 hours to pay for itself.
Scenario 2: You stick this on the top of your car Yeah, this will charge your cell phone, but conservation of energy says that the increased drag on your car will result in decreased fuel efficiency in equal proportion. Seeing as how your car already has a device that converts engine cycles into electricity (the alternator) you're better off just plugging in your car charging kit.
I'm all for clean power but a semester of physics tells you that there's little (or nothing) to be gained here. I hope I didn't offend the parent post, but I felt I had to bring about a reality check before somebody suggested charging their phone by clipping their turbine to an electric fan -- and then I would have to kill.