Soon you won't have to worry about recharging your cell phone because it will be automatically recharged as you walk. A company by the name "InStep NanoPower" has developed an inexpensive simple high-power energy harvester that converts mechanical energy to electrical power (up to 20 Watts). The power is more than enough to dramatically extend operational times of mobile electronic devices.
How it Works
According to InStep NanoPower: "The mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy by a novel microfluidic device through the interaction of thousands of liquid microdroplets with a groundbreaking nanostructured substrate. The most promising application of this technology is to harvest the mechanical energy produced by humans during walking.
To capture this energy, which is normally simply lost as heat, the energy harvester and energy storage unit can be easily incorporated in footwear as depicted in the illustration above.
InStep NanoPower also designed a novel energy management system, which allows direct utilization of the generated energy by common mobile devices such as smartphones and does not require connecting wires or mobile device modification. In particular, the integrated Wi-Fi hot spot can act as a “middleman” between mobile devices and a wireless network. Such an arrangement dramatically reduces power consumption of wireless mobile devices and allows them to operate for much longer time without battery recharge. The potential market for this technology is very broad and includes both civilian and military segments with the total value over $ 17,000 M."
How it Works
According to InStep NanoPower: "The mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy by a novel microfluidic device through the interaction of thousands of liquid microdroplets with a groundbreaking nanostructured substrate. The most promising application of this technology is to harvest the mechanical energy produced by humans during walking.
To capture this energy, which is normally simply lost as heat, the energy harvester and energy storage unit can be easily incorporated in footwear as depicted in the illustration above.
InStep NanoPower also designed a novel energy management system, which allows direct utilization of the generated energy by common mobile devices such as smartphones and does not require connecting wires or mobile device modification. In particular, the integrated Wi-Fi hot spot can act as a “middleman” between mobile devices and a wireless network. Such an arrangement dramatically reduces power consumption of wireless mobile devices and allows them to operate for much longer time without battery recharge. The potential market for this technology is very broad and includes both civilian and military segments with the total value over $ 17,000 M."