Slashdot Mirror
Self-Powered Parts Are the Future
bossanovalithium writes that an umbrella group including Japanese heavyweights like Panasonic and Toyota is working on bringing the price of self powered parts down to levels where they can be mass produced: "The idea is that the parts will make external power sources redundant — because they can convert energy from body heat, light and vibrations straight into electricity. Self powered electronics have already sporadically been used in technology like wall-mount remote control units for air conditioners, says Nikkei, but existing parts are bulky and cost a couple thousand yen a piece. 3,000 yen is about $35 — which means they're not the best bet, financially, yet."
Anyone else read the headline as "Self-powered pants are the future"? FP!
... for the coming wave of self-powered penis enhancement spam.
When you use body heat, your external power source doesn't disappear -- it becomes food.
I can't wait to see all the iPhone 5 owners shaking their phones to power them all the while gripping them with two fingers to keep a decent reception. This is exactly how I envisioned the future.
for the manufacture, now when your experimental and probably fragile power source craps out you have to buy that and whatever it was attached to
$35 = 27,17€ as of Today
Let's wait another couple of inflation cycles and the technology becomes affordable to TV watching Europeans.
Things that don't need a lot of power yet are always in movement and/or attached to the body? The only thing that meets that criteria is a watch. They've been self-winding for decades.
If there's enough power in the environment to power useful electronic devices above the level of a watch or a remote (that's used maybe twice a day), then we'd be on fire.
Nothing to see here. This is about as useful as a Space Nutter thread.
it reminds me of those clocks that draw mechanical power from changes in temperature and air pressure. If I recall correctly, the reason they never caught on is because people were prone to moving them so much, which caused mechanical failures galore.
"People don't want to learn linux" hasn't been a valid excuse since '03.
I can see it now. Dropping the remote to my TV will soon be necessary for proper function which is certainly a step up. Currently, when the remote is dropped, I have spend 5 minutes hunting for the batteries that have fallen out and fallen under the couch.
So the Umbrella Corporation from Japan is conducting experiments to convert human energy into electricity?
Yeah, this will end well.
(Then again - if we end up with a Milla v. Carrie-Ann Moss girl-on-girl scene, who am I to complain?)
There are plenty of things operating in hot, noisy environments that could use that power. There's a ton of power in those environments, enough to replace the external power source (FTA, more or less). Though, strictly speaking, the most successful of these will probably not be power sources, exactly. They will be engines for removing entropy from a system (e.g. hot air -> geometric mesh -> sound -> electricity).
They aren't the future. They're just another niche product that makes sense for a few particular applications.
For gong on over 200 years designers have slaved away at various schemes to make self winding/powered watches. None of the modern electrical self powered have ever reached the mass, 'as in cheaply' produced watch category. Sure there have been a few novelty types and even the high end ones have been rather meager successes,
http://web-japan.org/trends98/honbun/ntj990207.html and http://jrse.aip.org/jrsebh/v1/i6/p062701_s1?view=fulltext that fit more into the category of novelty items. These certainly are not to be considered a mass produced success.
The most activity seems to be in making the illumination better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium_illumination if you like to be irradiated. But that is more tweaking and old idea.
So you want to show the world this is no gimmick tech. Produce a simple inexpensive self powered electrical wristwatch that 1 year later the Chinese ripoff factories produce ones that sell at Walmart for $10ea.
So do that before ever moving on to the futuristic ipod'ish widgets. Then we'll all have mass produced products that run off your body heat, sweat, or the pressure of you fat ass wiggling about on your computer chair and cost no more than whatever else you have stuck to the side of your face presently.
That's just great. Then people will never have any excuse to ever put any of that crap down and be disconnected from the virtual world while the devices recharge. That will really open the market for the; As seen on TV, self powered, full body, 3D glasses included, sex suit. The more you get your grove on, the more you power the realism of your fantasy. All yours for 3 easy payments....
Now that is mass production of power at its finest.
And here I've been hearing 'children are the future'. Those little bastards make noise, eat food, get sick and all kinds of annoyances. So good to know we'll have parts instead of children.
Wait a second. These wouldn't happen to be *children* parts, would they? Low maintenance is great, but self-assembly? It'd take away the only fun part about them -- making 'em.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
...an umbrella group...
Anyone else read that and immediately think of zombies?
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Why does an umbrella need energy in the first place? You just unfold it by hand!
The most activity seems to be in making the illumination better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium_illumination if you like to be irradiated. But that is more tweaking and old idea.
Saying anyone will be "irradiated" by tritium is awfully close to fear-mongering. The radiation of tritium outside any packaging is stopped by six millimetres of air. In other words, you have to break the container in your mouth to get irradiated - the radiation cannot penetrate the dead outermost layer of your skin.
Of course, being irradiated isn't so bad. After all, our body irradiates itself 8000 times every second: http://rerowland.com/BodyActivity.htm
Does the average industrialized society member really move enough to generate significant power? Perhaps we should be working more on bioelectrical implants to harness all the excess food that we eat...
One kcal is slightly more than one watt-hour, so there's plenty of excess energy in the average diet. Food is much more expensive than raw electricity, but people don't seem to mind. Just think, one McDonald's double cheeseburger could power a typical laptop for over 25 hours.
440 kcal = 1,840,960 J = 511 W*h
511 W*h / 20 W = 25.55 h
This assumes 100% efficiency, but it's mostly to illustrate the incredible amount of energy in food.
I was told if you get a large, sealed tub, you can drop dirty clothes, soap, and water in before you road trip and after a certain amount of time the agitation inside the tub will scrub your clothes clean. I haven't tried this yet but once I get my old diesel rabbit running again maybe ill just leave the old shocks on there and try it out.
you don't eat crackers in the bed of your future--or else you'll get all scratchy
Doesn't anyone else thinks that this is like a energy sucking vampire? If it takes it's energy from body heat, then the body needs to produce more to make up for the loss.
At this rate we're going to evolve dicks that suck themselves before we get flying cars.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Those are definitely a few niche products.I know people who design medical devices and one of my friends was working on self-powered devices for his PhD project. They definitely have a set of potential uses.Still, they're not "the future" and shouldn't be over-hyped.
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges, Degrees, and Programs
> an umbrella group [...] working on [...] self powered parts
I suppose they're looking at using something called a T-bacterium in their components ?
What a depressingly stupid machine.
"instead of about $3 every 6-12 months on batteries?" citation needed: why do the rechargeable batteries require replacing every 6-12 months? After being charged 180-360 times (full charge each day) they can't hold a charge anymore? Modern NiMH rechargeable batteries like Sanyo Eneloop retain 85% of full capacity even after a year in storage and can charge up to 1,000 times without experiencing any memory effect while only costing $2.50 a battery. I wouldn't mind replacing the batteries every 3 years
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges, Degrees, and Programs
Adding a large tub full of water to your car probably doesn't save any energy at all. If you do try this, see what it does to your gas mileage.
I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
Well, naturally you'd do the full-tub part on the downhill leg of your journey. You'd empty it before going back up hill.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
did i mention the rabbit is diesel powered? 55 mpg ftw!
you don't eat crackers in the bed of your future--or else you'll get all scratchy
I read self powered pants. But honestly I wish someone would find a way to make wireless mice and keyboards self powered. If you can jiggle a watch and it runs for 5 years why can't repeated shaking of a mouse or pressing keys generate enough power to not require batteries.