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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 wonder if i could generate enough energy from my hands shaking to power my espresso machine. that would be useful :)
With one of these, Viagra, duct tape, and a trampoline, I bet I could fuel a Prius for days.
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.
Think about it- at 4 watts per square centimeter. 40,500,000 sq cm to the acre. Find yourself a baren 1 acre field in the desert in Northern California that gets minor earthquakes all the time (and there are a few). Bury 40,500,000 of them, and attach them to charging massive capacitors, and put in a computerized matching inverter, and you've got a 162MW generating plant that has virtually NO environmental impact.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
It seems to me that this technology makes humans more powerful, but not better. If this technology would only fall into the hands of persons who are well-intentioned, well-informed, and intelligent, that would be a good thing. But I think technology in general empowers both good and evil acts. So I'm not sure that advancing technology is clear-cut progress.
Don't get me wrong - when I'm in the hospital, I certainly want advanced tech. And when my car crashes, or my home needs power, ditto. But some former citizens of Hiroshima an Nagasaki probably have somewhat mixed feelings on the issue.
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?"
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!
Depending on how little motion they require, line streets with them on both sides (or even under the pavement) and power street lights with them. The possiblities for hilarity to ensure are jut boundless.
Absolutely- this too is a variation on a power application I've heard about annecdotally here at my employment. Seems back in the 1960s, as they were pushing I-5 through Southern Oregon, they had a problem in the Rogue Valley. They laid down the road bed, came back the next morning, and found the local farmer had blown it up. Turns out it was a bureaucratic mistake- they hadn't actually bothered to file condemnation papers on his field. When they went to court to do so, he asked for no compensation other than to: a. Put a tractor tunnel under the freeway and b. be allowed to lay the roadbed himself. They were puzzeled by this second idea- until they saw him put down the roadbed- instead of just the normal layer of gravel, he put down a thin layer of gravel, a copper pipe zigzaged with the ends on one side, and then another layer of gravel. He then allowed them to pave over the top. To this day, the local school, his farmhouse, and the city hall are warmed from blowing air through that pipe; the combination of the traffic and solar heat on the roadway keeps a pretty constant 80F coming out of the pipe at all times.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
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
Very little force is required to move them.
Only about 4watts/cm2
On second thought, forget the Prius.
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.