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New Twist on Power Walking
An anonymous reader writes "Carrying a newly designed backpack loaded with between 44 and 84 pounds of gear, users generate enough electricity to simultaneously power an MP3 player, a PDA, night vision goggles, a handheld GPS, a CMOS image decoder, a GSM terminal in talk mode, and Bluetooth."
- You're a gargoyle.
Money for nothing, pix for free
might be worth it for over weight kids that want to power their game boy while walking for a change ...
I suppose it'll help build muscle too lol
A walking target for muggers. Or if you went on the London Underground with it, increase your likelihood of being shot by the Met Police exponentially
Not only generating power but instantly increasing your popularity with the fairer sex.
for the annual Linux Beer Hike!
As if my backpack isn't heavy enough from, you know, books for school. My back hurts from the thing as it is, I'm not carrying another 50 pounds around, thank you.
The incredible accuracy of this list of items that the backpack can power quite astounds me.
"Sorry sir, if you want to play WMAs you'll need the extended BackpackWindows version."
"Sorry sir, USB2.0 is not supported. Have you considered using BlueTooth?"
"Sorry sir, federal law requires you to wear night vision goggles while carrying this backpack. Yes, sir, I'm aware it's high noon. Regulations."
"Sorry sir, but is that GSM terminal in talk mode? It is? OK, just checking... some tourists think they can use stand-by mode."
My blog
Sounds a lot like the energy differential shown by hopping kangaroos. Their energy consumption is remarkably low given the velocities they generate and it seems to be the result of energy stored in their lower leg tendons. In other words they are using the same benefits to get a large increase in overall energy output with a marginal increase in metabolic consumption.
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
Great! Now I can assasinate people while listening to the Kill Bill soundtrack!
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
...carrying all that gear means that the calls you do make on the GSM device in talk mode sound like heavy breathing pervert-o-calls, and you'll get busted for harrassment :)
Game dev and music blog
While at the moment this is spawning a handful of standard amusing slashdot responses, you miss a more useful application - that of field operatives. And you can take 'field operatives' to mean soldiers and the like - being able to use all kinds of equipment that would normally require more power than is available should improve things, although bear in mind they already carry heavy packs so it wouldn't be one per person. The other kind is the more normal field operative - anyone who goes exploring/researching/hiking/prospecting... if you don't have to carry samples back to base camp for analysis, or can power *anything* enabling, then you're ddoing well with one of these. Remember that most people don't need the long list of things mentioned in the post; but for enabling people who are away from home, this looks like it could be really handy.
Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious
"...simultaneously power an MP3 player, a PDA, night vision goggles..."
Night vision goggles eh? Aren't night vision goggles typically something one uses for espionage and reconnaissance? You know...THINGS YOU NEED TO BE VERY QUIET AND STILL TO DO?
I certainly hope that the soldiers from Splinter Cell don't start carrying these lest they be proper fucked.
In Europe you can now get the O'Neill H2 series backpack, which has a solarcell to power your phone, iPod, etc. It also features bluetooth and integrated phone and iPod controls.
See this link for more info.
Whew! Scared me there for a moment -- I could have sworn the headline said "New Twist on Power Wanking"
Seems like it would just be way easier to just plug it in at home and live with the fact that I'm only going to get ~16hours out of my iPod, 24hrs of standby on my cellphone... 5hrs out of my laptop. etc.
:D
Alternative energy like this won't really get anybody's interest until it's passive (except all of us. lol). As long as it's more work than plugging it into the wall at home, we'll keep doing just that.
In the meantime, just how many active vibrator's does that translate into?
I think that bringing 30 kg in replacement batteries should last me the entire vacation!
Carrying between 44 and 84 pounds of backpack will negate the need to carry heavy batteries. So how heavy are batteries for MP3 players and PDA's these days?
I remember that it exists hand watches that are powered by kinetic energy... searching in google I found two devices:
1 32/132.htm
http://www.designawards.com.au/ADA/04-05/student/
and another one made by seike for its clocks:
http://www.ofrei.com/page867.html
Anybody know something likeness?
...that this was posted on the same day as the article about the robotic hand?
1 + 1 = 2 (say hello to a new era of beach voyeurism)
Three rings for the Elven-kings in the sky
The article doesn't seem to say whether the 84 pounds is built into the backpack, or if you could attach your own substitute 84lb load. If you can use your own load, the deal gets even sweeter for military types.
Someone with a better brain for physics tell me, is it more likely that the electricity is the result of lifting (or lowering, more likely) a generic 84lb load, or do you think you'd be required to lower some specific load of some type of electronics?
My initial guess is the first scenario.
Free power! Governments would make these backpacks illegal.
Join the British National Party
44 to 84 pounds is not the weight of the generator, it's the weight of the pendulum. The pendulum is whatever is in the backpack. If you already have 44+ pounds of books in the backpack, you're all set for the pendulum part.
I'd guess the generator itself is less than ten pounds, but the article didn't say.
Here's a picture http://www.heise.de/bilder/63699/0/1 . The aparatus just takes a small part of the weight. However, you have to put something in your backpack, whatever it is, to generate power.
...it sounds an awful lot like like Master Shake's eHelmet:j pg
http://www.mcpeepants.com/frames/405edork/frame5.
I could be wrong, but that's the way I read it.
They mentioned that you'd need to carry 44 to 84 pounds, and the discussion sounds like that's the weight of the pendulum. Or maybe the pendulum plus the generator plus the frame. If the generator is, say, only ten pounds, then the 44 to 84 could include your tent, the device(s) being powered, lunch, collected rocks, etc.
Am I reading this wrong?
Any ideas?
an MP3 player, a PDA, night vision goggles, a handheld GPS, a CMOS image decoder, a GSM terminal in talk mode, and Bluetooth.
... a Motorola A1000 then, apart from the night vision goggles?
So
and what is a CMOS image decoder? Do they mean a digital camera or camcorder?! Given that they say 'GSM Terminal In Talk Mode' rather than 'Cell Phone' I guess it is...
Kinda makes me think of the Stillsuit. So all that needs to be built is a small electric desalinator and pumps. And then we all need to get some blue in blue eyes, because blue in blue eyes are cool.
Once more into the breach dear friends, once more.
A black African-typed woman was miss Brasil once in the mid-80s and once again in the mid-90s. Miss Brasil are normally the not-really-common-down-here blond-and-or-fair-skinned types. Nothing to see here. You are wrong.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
self-winding watches have been around for many years to store energy in springs to power a watch, and Seiko and other companies have watches which store electricy in ultra-capacitors.
why a backpack?
why not use wrist- or ankle-mounted generators, which get a lot more movement, so presumably the generator could be a lot smaller and lighter?
...just hump around a 12 volt car battery which weighs a fair bit less...
So does Anonymous Coward have good karma?
be careful while jogging past another person wearing one with more negative electrons than yours. *ffffZZZZZZZOTTTT* *POOOOM* *smoke smoke*
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What are the chances your average /. user can even heft said backpack?
(images of futuristic schoolyard-bully style backpack swiping ensue)
This reminds me of a watch a friend had. It did not use batteries. It worked off the movement of his wrist/hand. He said the watch somehow converted kinetic energy into power for the watch. The watch was always fast, we suspected he masturbated too much.
But a backpack that will produce enough juice to run electronics. WOW!!
A while back, a friend went to Isle Royale, a primitive island off northern Michigan. He said a boat went there once a day, in the morning, and once it left, you were stuck on the island. No toilets, no running water, no nothing but wild wolves and a thick forrest. There was no doctor, no police, no anything. But people went there to hike and camp. He said in 6 days of deep hiking, he only ran into 2 other hikers.
Now imagine how portable batteries that charge off movement would change things...
He could take his cell phone with him, and know it would not die. So if work needed to call, they could. He could take his laptop, so for those insomniac nights he could catch up on work.
I dunno, when I go hiking, I take food and water. I don't think I would want 80 pounds of batteries on my back.
The usefullness of batteries would be on a truck. Toss a ton of batteries and generators on a truck, because the extra weight won't mean anything. But for a human, 80 pounds is a lot of extra weight if you also want to carry water.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
I'd just like to point out that if you were working deep back country you are often carrying much more than 20kg in rock samples or camping gear or other equipment.
If that's the case you get the recharging essentially for free.
Although you could probably hook someting into a good laptop bag ...
When walking, the body is like an inverted pendulum...The springs allow the load to slide up and down on bushings constrained to vertical rods..
Don't walk too fast indoors. The accelerating momentum might bounce you into the roof.
It is recommended that you don't carry more 40 to 55 pounds. In a combat situation anyway. And I don't see why this doesn't apply to backpackers. External frame backpacks can also be quite heavy, so it would be interesting to see how much the backpack+motor would cut into your weight allowance.
What I'd be interested to know is how long of an extension cord you could get with 80 lbs.
Read any good sonnets lately?
I know I sure as hell will be sticking to batteries. Why on earth would you want to carry such a weight on your back when you could just as easily power all that gear with lithium ion batteries?
You may generate 7 watts but if you are storing that in a battery you won't get that much back out.
It's a good idea though since a suspended load is going to be absorbing energy anyway (ie. the springy-ness), might as well use that to generate power.
However, a lot more energy could be generated by absorbing the person's weight (plus anything they carry). For example, if you could store the energy absorbed by the padding of your shoes as you walked. Now that would be some power.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Bobdammit, I was daydreaming about such a device two weeks ago whilst under the influence of coffee and the Summer sun. Pity..., maybe if I spend more time building than daydreaming, I just might actually get something accomplished. - "World's Laziest Inventor"
...without all the (useless) high tech gear. I like to call it "running to class". All you need is a backpack, a laptop, an iPod, and tons of books and supplies.
Last Post!
How much power is going to be left over to resuccitate the poor soldier that collapses from exhaustion from toting around a rucksack that now weighs about as much as they do? It's only soldiers that are in need of a power source that can go like that without needing a tether for days on end.
Geeks can always find time to charge their stuff in. 44 pounds of LiON cells will run that equipment for _days on end_. What the hell geek is going to be willing to tote that around? People pay mint just to shave a pound or _two_ off the weight of their notebooks.
Sounds more like "Power *Stalking*" to me...
Max.
Hook all the backpacks together to form a sentient computer network that develop a way to lock thier user into the system and force them to walk to the ends of the earth.
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Considering that my Sony MP3 player goes for a whole month on one AAA cell, your 30 pounds of spare batteries will corrode, self discharge and MP3 will be obsolete as a music format, before you get to the end of that many batteries...
Oh well, what the hell...
what the article doesnt tell is that all subject died of dehydration because they had to walk 3 hours with the 38 kg backpack in order to listen to their 300 mp3 songs.
:(
Imagine powering a blackerry now! imagine the death toll of vp's around the world
if they lost some of the other kit maybe they could power a TTL image decoder!
I'm thinking of those emergency flashlights that are powered by shaking them up and down for a minute. An internal magnet bounces up and down, passing through a coil to generate current that charges a capacitor. Seems less Rube-Goldbergian than a rack-and-pinion attached to a DC motor, and could probably be adapted to this system.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."--Feynman
OK, first of all, what the hell is the point of carrying around a bunch of weight to recycle something? News flash - you put more energy in than the work you get out. Plus you have filters, sterilizers, etc. So no, you can't use this (insanely massy) pack to recycle urine more efficiently than just carrying (and consuming, and expelling) water.
Second, this is not like a "fireman suit". By the way, we call those thingies "bunker gear" or "turnout gear" or "firefighting ensemble". They consist of PBI, Nomex, and Kevlar, along with some other goodies to keep other crap off of us. Oh, and here's a newsflash - it's almost unbearably hot in a "fireman suit", especially in Summer. That's why firefighters generally much prefer late Fall or early Spring. It's much more comfortable.
I've been on FAST (or RIT) team calls (that's where we show up to rescue any firefighters that might become trapped trying to save your house), where we were standing outside in -10F for three hours, and I was a happy, happy, warm, comfortable camper.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Damn. I need to go to get my prescription changed. Once I got closer to the screen I could see that you were saying "freeman". My bad on the second part of the post, however, the first part I stand by completely...wait - I can't it now - were you saying this was a silly idea? Dammit, Darcy, where the F*** are my spectacles?
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Plus the article doesn't mention-- what is 44-84 lbs in reference to? Is 44 lbs an empty backpack? If I have to add a week's worth of supplies on top of that, this design isn't practical at all. While some people may need power in remote places/the backcountry, I can't see myself needing power enough to justify carrying around something weighing that much. Batteries, while not replenishable, are much lighter.
The current trend in backpacking is that lighter is better. It really surprises me how long it took for this to catch on. While many people made the switch to internal frame packs 10-15 years ago, we're now seeing a trend toward frameless packs. Fabrics that are stonger, lighter, and sometimes waterproof, allow you to make a much lighter pack. My frameless pack weighs around 11 oz empty-- I can fill it to about 25 pounds before the weight begins to hurt my shoulders over the course of a day (this is a pack without a hipbelt). Yeah, there's a bit of an art being able to get a week's worth of supplies, plus water, under 25 lbs. But when I do, I can easily cover more miles (20-25 as opposed to 10-15 with a 40 lb pack on moderate terrain) or simply enjoy myself more.
Occasionally you'll see some gearhead out on the trail with a pack stuffed full of electrical gadgets. They don't usually stay on the trail very long.
... But will it power the flea pod?
...you will be assimilated! Wait, don't run! We cannot keep up with you!
Come on... You were ALL thinking it.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
This leads me to a thought that I have had many times at the gym. (I know, geek... gym... blah blah blah).
I see all of those people on bikes, stairclimbers, elipticals and such, and think, "Wow, what a huge waste of energy!" It would be fairly easy to turn much of the physical energy used on those machines into electrical energy, and the gym could at least power its own lights with it, if not sell power back to the electric company.
I suppose though it would make the patrons feel even more like a hampster on a wheel.
-ShelbyCobra
Living life in the right side of the s-plane
I can power all of that with either batteries of AC, no need to walk.
This sig is false.
They already have those, there called still suits. Just remember to only buy them from the deep desert fremen.
Honor is like virtue, if you must tell people that you have it then chances are you don't.
Is it just me, or does the description given by the inventors of the device's operation sound hilarious?
When walking, the body is like an inverted pendulum. After the foot is put down to take a step, the body vaults over it, causing the hip to move up and down about 1.6 to 2.7 inches (4 to 7 cm). The Suspended-load Backpack frame sits still on the wearer's back, and the load is mounted on a load plate that is suspended from the frame by springs. The springs allow the load to slide up and down on bushings constrained to vertical rods, thus allowing the load to move with the same vertical motion as the hip, but lagging it by a fraction of a second, producing differential movement between the frame and load. The pogo-stick-like movement of the load generates mechanical energy that drives a rack-and-pinion device that powers a geared DC motor that acts as a generator mounted on the frame.
Vault! Sproing! Slide! Pogo! Gears! Motors!
No thank you. I'd rather not walk around with a flapping, bouncing, sliding, grinding, humming backpack. This thing sounds like an invention of Wile E. Coyote.
'Be always mindful, even when ditch-digging.' --D. T. Suzuki
It took a while but I finally found a picture of it. It doesn't look too bad, and actually does look eco-friendly.
running would generate even more energy.
Some spring assisted footwear could generate both impressive running speeds and considerable energy with this device.
If the footwear had heel activated absorbtion and toe activated release, the power could be used to assist toe push effort, and increase speed/effort ratio.
A few months ago, I read about a piezo device in a walker's shoe that generated electricity, and probably was more efficient, although it probably did not change the gait to use less energy as the article claims is done by the backpack device.
I read somewhere that the military is working pretty hard on power-boots. Boots that use the wearer's own weight to generate power as they move and walk. It has something to do with two membranes coming together as the wearer steps down and applies pressure. Apparently these membranes generate electrical current when they come into proximity. I think it is part of that "Landwarrior 2025" program (or whatever it is.) This seems to be a FAR superior idea to the backpack to me, as you don't have to carry a the extra weight of a loaded backpack to have the system work. After all, why not use your own weight to provide the power? Currently the system does indeed work, and they are working on improving iffeciency and reliability. Last I heard the really "hacked and cobbled together" testbed can easily power a cell-phone. They expected to increase that power output many times over. Supposedly at least. Whether they ever the same levels of power this backpack does I don't know. It is my understanding there are no moving parts in the boot system besides the membranes. Maybe someone with more info on these boots could add to this? As an aside, I seem to remember hearing something about some military idea to generate electrical current using the wearer's own body heat? Any able to add to this?
Haven't sorted through all the /. comments yet, so I apologize if this is redundant..
I for one applaud this research. The implications for greener energy are pretty clear - not only are human beings providing the generative power - but it also cuts down on the number of batteries needed either in the form of disposables (with the waste implications) or rechargables (with the power station pollution/impact implications)
I have no idea just how many AA's I've gone through in my life powering small portable electronics. I try to only use rechargables (although they're just poorly transmitting wall socket power into battery power), but when you are travelling, that's hard to do sometimes. A rig like this would reduce or eliminate the waste disposal of countless little batteries.
Not to mention that it makes that sort of energy more accessible in remote locations, where buying batteries or plugging in a recharger isn't an available option. It could definitely astronomically increase the feasibility of technology in remote locations.
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
(The Beatles)
They already have radios and flashlights with little generators that are driven by a wind-up spring mechanism. Why not GPS devices? I've even mentioned this to an engineer at a company that makes these GPS gadgets. The response: "people just bring extra batteries, so why bother?".
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
Meh, it's been done.
The issue I have is that the purification system, even in miniature, is going to add another 10-15 lbs. in order to be efficient enough to be useful. Charcoal, UV or chlorine, RO/DI (if you're nuts), etc. and spare parts together will easily add that much weight, and in order to go in the desert (as opposed to just in the field, where you pack your gear, and half-a-goat) is going to require even more effort and efficincy since the loss is higher. In addition, you still have to exert EXTRA effort to make the generator work (duh, perpetual motion), but you lose the diminishing mass advantage (no, I know - not all of it, just "much" of it).
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Issue 1: The device appears to be dependent on relatively small hip movements of "1.6 to 2.7 inches (4 to 7 cm)" and the testing was done on a treadmill. I wonder if the hip movement is significantly different if walking up or down an incline. How about when jogging? Do tall people generate more electricty than short people?
Issue 1: All the energy is still coming from your legs, so the increased efficiency is really important if you don't want to work harder. It seems to me that moving 80 pounds at 2 mi/hr is going to consume a lot of energy before we can even start to make any electricity. The efficiency increase better be huge or I'm going to drop dead after the first 10 minutes!
(I'm not angry today)
So it looks like we won't be in vats when the computers take over, but walking around in circles with backpacks on.
There is only one reason to shoot: to stop someone from doing something worse than that person's death. There is only one way stop that person with a gun: kill them. Someone who knows the right fighting might be able to stop them without killing, but once a gun is used as the tool there is only one solution: death.
In the movies the sharpshooter can shoot off a wrist without missing, and the bullet never goes through the target to hit something else. In the real world bullets can go through the target, and still kill someone behind as well. Therefor you aim for the chest which is big enough that it is hard to miss, and dense enough that the bullet has little energy after it comes out. Even these are not guarantees that no damage with be done to others, which is why good gun safety is to know your target and everything beyond it.
Guns are a limited use tool. Sometimes they are the best tool for the job, but only when you understand the limits.
Don't forget the tubes to crap into. Can your desalinator handle human feces?
Wouldn't the pain or blood be a good enough indicator that he has been hit?
Huh?
For short trips in temperate weather, a backpack isn't likely to weigh 40 pounds. The equipment has gotten exceedingly light in the past decade. But the technology is darn interesting nevertheless.
They already have watches powered by body movement. I think I first saw the ads about 5 years back.
given we have enough of these to to generate the power. Maybe they could power their own mp3 players that way....
eat it!!
Hey hey guys,
So the inventor is my college professor. I saw the thing Thursday and yea it's ugly and yea you're not gonna carry 80 pounds to generate 7 watts, but you COULD.
The intended purpose is for rescue workers, who are gonna carry a moderate backpack anyway to be able to easily generate 1/2 - 3 watts of energy to power a headlight or heater for a long time without adding to the weight with batteries.
-L