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Georgia Tech Unveils Prototype Nanogenerator
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a working prototype nanogenerator capable of generating as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter of continuous direct current. The generators are green (to use), drawing power from natural motion in the surrounding environment. They are based on non-toxic chemicals and should be safe for use in biomechanical implants, but that's not their only potential use. From the article: "If you had a device like this in your shoes when you walked, you would be able to generate your own small current to power small electronics," Wang noted. "Anything that makes the nanowires move within the generator can be used for generating power. Very little force is required to move them."
I needed one of these to power my iPod Femto for 3 seconds.
I can throw as many stones as I wish; my house is made of transparent aluminum.
I wonder if i could generate enough energy from my hands shaking to power my espresso machine. that would be useful :)
Quite a few years ago I had a watch powered by the exact same principle. Merely walking around would generate the power it needed to keep itself running. Unfortunately as I got more and more into computers I found the watch holding less and less of a charge, until eventually it stopped working altogether. If I had to choose between movement and a watch or computers I would have to say I'm glad there's a clock in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Couldn't this be used to make a self-powered Wii? Lord knows, I'm jumping around like a monkey when I play on that thing.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Somebody should attempt to coat the blades of a windmill with these.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
While it would be nice to make hay of other people's rudeness, I think there is only one appropriate response to someone who's driving around with music so loud (or bass-boosted) that it rattles the door panels of their vehicles: a rocket-propelled grenade aimed squarely up the glass-pack.
Ballmer to demo at CES: A laptop you can power by throwing it across the room!
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
When years ago I got a self-winding watch, I thought of putting such a mechanism in a backpack that the single-digit-set would be strapped into. Every day its spring could be discharged into some sort of energy reservoir. This would both harness kids' inexhaustible energy and slow them down a bit.
Now we have an unobtrusive direct-to-battery technology. Lets get some useful work out of those tykes!
With that setup, MacGyver could power a Hummer H1 for years!
Hopefully this will scale sufficiently to be useful. The summary mentions 4 Watts per cubic cm, but what they've done so far is extremely small.
The output currents they're getting are in the nanoamperes. I takes a billion nanoamperes to make 1 ampere.
Meanwhile, consider microturbine-driven generators in the urinary tract...
Keep the sodas and coffee coming!
Wonderful. I'm 600 pages into the book and I read a spoiler on Slashdot. Perfect. Might as well put the book down now. :-P
reech bee-yond ur clip-0n
BTW, Vader is Lukes father.
Also, it's a sled. His beloved childhood sled.
Sorry.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! !!!!!!!!!
reech bee-yond ur clip-0n
You want to put WHAT in your URINARY TRACT?!