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Human dynamo: How energy from your knees could power an Ipod
It gives a wh*** new meaning to the phrase power walking.
A gadget that converts the movement of the knees while walking into electricity has been unveiled.
On a gentle stroll, the knee-brace generates enough electricity to run a mobile phone.
Although the prototype is bulky - like something Robocop might have attached to his leg - smaller versions could one day be incorporated into clothing.
It could allow joggers to power up their iPods while running or commuters to charge their mobile phones while dashing for a train.
The inventors even believe it will help soldiers cut down on the number of batteries they need to carry into battle.
Spending power: Shoppers could charge their mobiles while walking from store to store
Inventor Dr Arthur Kuo, of the University of Michigan, said the device - called a "biomechanical energy harvester" - worked in the same way as the power-generating brakes found in hybrid cars.
These collect energy that would otherwise be lost as heat when a car slows down. The knee brace harvests energy lost when someone bends their knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step.
Dr Kuo said knee joints were ideally suited for generating electricity.
"There is power to be harvested from various places in the body, and you can use that to generate electricity. The knee is probably the best place," he said.
"We believe that when you're slowing down the knee at the end of swinging the leg, most of that energy is just wasted."
Dr Kuo and colleagues from the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and University of Pittsburgh tested their invention on six men walking on a treadmill at a leisurely two miles an hour.
With a device on each leg, the volunteers generated around five watts of electricity while using very little extra energy to walk.
That would be enough power to run ten mobile phones at the same time. By running, one volunteer was able to generate 54 watts of power - enough for a conventional light bulb.
Views: 211
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Comment by happyseaurchin on March 22, 2010 at 1:24pm
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nice :)
i think scientists are producing fibres that produce electricity from kinetic energy
so when you just walk about
your jeans produce electricity
(ouch;)
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Comment by TJ ROSHAN on March 22, 2010 at 1:27pm
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yes its awesm, it must be incorporated with sports clothing line like Nike,adidas,etc
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Comment by Lynn Caldwell on March 22, 2010 at 1:43pm
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Love this! Really, what we do to keep our little gagets...lol I love my iphone but it's always loosing power, I also walk to the supermarket, play in the park with my little boy, run around the house all day playing with my son and doing chores...I could rack up some serious battery power! Thanks for sharing! x
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The knee power generator is capable of producing 2.5 watts of electricity per leg, which is enough to power five cell phones. It apparently encourages the idea that of a little bit of energy scavenging from cheap or free sources is possible.!
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Comment by Thomas Pinkerton on March 22, 2010 at 1:59pm
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This gave me another idea. What if you scale it back even further: a pedometer with a linear induction generator in it? Like a shake-powered flashlight, but pedometer-sized? Still harnessing the power of walking, but without being so bulky. Mind you, that's not much worse than a knee-brace, anyway.
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but a pedometer with a linear induction generator only works on intense shaking i suppose....
that would be better suited for "so you think you can dance" kind of activities!
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Not necessarily. If you use a spherical magnet and a lightly oiled shaft, you could, theoretically, have only as much resistance as a bearing. Doubly-so if the shaft is at the horizontal, making the magnet "ball" more likely to roll back and forth.
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A shake flashlight has a fixed coil of wire, usually in the handle , and a moveable magnet that pa**** through the coil. By shaking the flashlight back and forth, the magnet pa**** through the coil and creates electricity. The electricity is stored in a capacitor, which becomes charged. This is enough ONLY to power the LED bulb and provide light...hence to create more energy..the intensity of the shake will have to increase. (if required to charge mobiles and other gadgets).
OR
the gadget's size will have to be increased and again it will become bulky :(.
Hence thats the tradeoff.
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My question is this: true, the shaking is only enough to power an LED light during use (in my experience, it takes only a couple of shakes to produce good light). However, if you shake it 5000 times (the average steps an American takes in a day), would that be enough to charge a battery? I realize, now, that real-time usage off of a pedometer-generator is impossible, but would it produce enough for a one-time charge?
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Comment by ben on March 22, 2010 at 2:44pm
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I have seen this device before and certainly looks to be viable.
There are many opportunities to harvest power from human movement...the one I'm current excited about is research underway from (an unnamed sports shoe company) to harness the kinetic energy generated from the movement in the material in the upper section of shoe between the toe section and foot.
If you have a look at any shoe you'll see that this is well creased and worn...also the most flexible. If you can harness this then you can probable extract enough trickle current to slowly charge a device.
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