[PeaceBeWithYou]

Facinating. Seems like it's always 5 or more years off.

Enjoy.

[King Prout]

ping

[KarinG1]

Wow! That sounds similar to piezoelectric devices, which convert mechanical stress to electricity and have been around for years. What a scoop!

[Young Werther]

UC Berkley has developed a penny sized wankel engine which is connected to a 1 watt motor generator. It runs on butane. One thousand of these engines would fit in the proverbial bread box but would deliver 1kw of power. Can you say Electric Car?

Check it Out

[Graymatter]

Wait a minute. How often would I have to get up and move around?

[lepton]

The generators could, for instance, harvest energy from [...] acoustic waves

Wow! When spouseperson is in PMS Nag mode, it could absorb the sound coming through the walls, and power both the airconditioner and ESPN!

I'll let you guys invite the ladies to exact their vengeance. :)

[dighton]

Lionel Hampton lives.

[joem15]

It's always 5 or more years away in order to keep the grant money in the pipeline. Dangle the carrot in front of the donkey and he will follow it forever, or until he falls over from exhaustion. In that case you will need a new carrot and a new donkey. Finding a new carrot is no problemo in the scientific community.

[manwiththehands]

The nanogenerators Wang and graduate student Jinhui Song created rely on the infinitesimal electrical discharges released when zinc oxide wires 20 to 40 nanometers wide and 200 to 500 nanometers long are bent and then released.

Soon to be known as the "Wang/Song Twang" effect.

[nevergiveup]

Except of course for the specific technology, there is nothing new here. It is called "power scavaging". At first blush it seems to have zillions of uses, but it actually has very limited uses. Namely, it may be good for performing internal tasks within low power devices, but transmitting any information or activating an actuator will require more power than can be scavaged.

If you want a lot more power from body motion, just add a crank, generator and a super-cap/rechargable battery. I just board a nifty LED flashlight that works great after only a couple of turns of the handle.

[America's Resolve]

Bump for future Reference

[Wiz]

Thankyou for this article. This was something I was looking for.

[AntiGuv]

Seems like it's always 5 or more years off.

Cloning was 30 to 50 years off when Dolly came along.. ;^)

FutureTechPing!

An emergent technologies list covering biomedical research, fusion power, nanotech, AI robotics, and other related fields. FReepmail to join or drop.

[coconutt2000]

This is only a dozen technology generations away from harvesting the ambient vibrations omnipresent in the Universe.

Imagine nano devices with the ability to harvest 100% of the electromagnetic spectrum and vibrations transmitted through the air or water, or through direct contact.

Imagine an air conditioner that is powered in part by the heat from the air it cools. ;-)

[Reaganesque]

Bump for future reference.