One Step Closer To Becoming The Human Battery

from the neo?--is-that-you? dept

Thu, Sep 8th 2005 7:27pm — Mike Masnick

Well, one side effect of gasoline prices being so high these days is that it's going to force people to start looking at alternative forms of generating energy. One area that's often overlooked is how much energy is generated by the everyday actions of people. Sure, we've got those watches that charge themselves based on movement, but, that's pretty minor (and who wears watches any more anyway?). So, some researchers are taking a similar concept and are trying to apply it to a backpack. The backpack is basically set on springs, and the energy of the pack shifting up and down is stored and can be used to power small electronics. So, for example, you could power your own mobile phone or mp3 player just by walking around (with a heavy backpack on your back). Of course, it was developed mainly for military uses, and it's not like the average person is carrying around a backpack all the time anyway. However, as people keep buying more gadgets, maybe they'll need a backpack to tote them around anyway -- and if so, why not one that will power the gadgets at the same time?

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15 Comments

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mhh5, 8 Sep 2005 @ 7:27pm

hmmm
heh. thought this post was going to be about using stomach acids to actually create an internal human battery....
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dorpus, 8 Sep 2005 @ 7:42pm

Bum Rush Power
Couldn't the kinetic energy of crowds walking into a subway station on a treadmill propel a subway train? Crowds at Asian train stations are sometimes known to create random tsunami effects, e.g. when the last train is about to leave, which causes a shockwave to go through crowds, breaking bones and flinging people high into the air.

Or you could drive through Michigan, where some street lights are twice as tall as normal and emit an ungodly amount of lumens, and it feels like a religious experience to have that thing shine down into your car.
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googly eyes, 8 Sep 2005 @ 8:08pm

Then there is this:
I want wuna deez

The solar Scottevest
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Daniel (profile), 8 Sep 2005 @ 9:22pm

No Subject Given
theres all sorts of things you could do instead, for example stick a dunamo on the turnstiles to power well, next to nothing really so its pretty pointless.
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Pete Austin, 9 Sep 2005 @ 2:30am

Other unconventional power sources
Hamster-powered phone charger
Water pump driven by kids' roundabout
Wind Turbines
(one of these is unreliable)
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NoDef, 9 Sep 2005 @ 5:01am

No Free Lunch
This has popped up everywhere, but I still don't get it. This backpack doesn't produce energy, it just converts 'wasted' energy from walking with a backpack. The more energy you want from the backpack, the more energy the user needs to 'waste' making the backpack even more difficult to carry. It seems one could just design a backpack which 'wastes' less enabling the user to carry more weight. (part of which might be a hand cranked generator which would be even more efficient [weight/power] at generating electricity than this backpack!)
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2005 @ 8:25am

Re: No Free Lunch
its for people who are already carrying a backpack, right? so you're carrying the stuff already, and walking for whatever reason - hiking, a soldier doing drills, whatever - why not harness that wasted energy to be used later?

is this idea about saving wasted energy comparable to hybrid cars recharging when you use the brakes? i'm honestly not up to date on this, so let me know if i'm saying anything incorrectly - but the cars didnt used to do that. but once they realized they could harness the energy that was being produced, they did it and it made it more efficient and better overall.

doesnt that same idea apply to this backpack stuff?
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Ivan Sick, 9 Sep 2005 @ 8:53am

Re: Bum Rush Power
No. No, it couldn't.
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Bill, 9 Sep 2005 @ 10:02am

how about this
a windup flashlight, with a port to charge your phone.

http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/mo_dynamo_5led.html
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2005 @ 10:04am

Re: No Free Lunch
Rather than regenerative breaking, this is more like running the air conditioner compresser off of the drive train of a car. I think the point of the original post was that one could just as easily redesign the backpack to reduce the amount of wasted effort, this doesn't apply to breaking where you must waste (or transfer) the energy to acheieve a goal.
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Jasper, 12 Sep 2005 @ 4:34am

No Subject Given
I'm waiting for the ultimate human-powered solution that will solve 2 of mankind's greatest problems at once: electricity from burning fat. "I need to get some pizza, my iPod's running low."
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tiffany sheppard, 9 Feb 2007 @ 10:12am

hello there
i think the project that you,ve made is the coolest ever i love that and i am doing the same one and i hope it is as good as yours

P.S By tiffany loves the project
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bvb, 15 Oct 2007 @ 3:42pm

gyiujkhj
this is the worst site ever
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josh, 1 Dec 2007 @ 5:36am

nice page
Thanks it gave me alot of info
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Josh, 31 Jan 2008 @ 11:50am

kool but it coulent happen
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