Charge Mobile Phone With Body Electricity - Shose

Charge Mobile Phone With Body Electricity - Shose

Through energy harvesting tiles, backpacks and insoles, there has been much talk about harnessing our kinetic energy to power mobile devices and other electronics. A team of researchers is claiming to have made a big breakthrough in the collective effort to turn human motion into usable energy, developing a new method of producing useful amounts of electricity from our footsteps.

"Human walking carries a lot of energy," says professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tom Krupenkin. "Theoretical estimates show that it can produce up to 10 watts per shoe, and that energy is just wasted as heat. A total of 20 watts from walking is not a small thing, especially compared to the power requirements of the majority of modern mobile devices."

But drawing usable energy from these theoretical calculations would pose a number of challenges for Krupenkin and his team. Devising a harvesting technique that was practical for the "relatively small displacements and large forces of footfalls," in turn making power-producing footwear a viable possibility, has been an elusive goal so far, despite the promise of devices like the PediPower shoe attachment.

"So we've been developing new methods of directly converting mechanical motion into electrical energy that are appropriate for this type of application," Krupenkin says.

Reverse electrowetting is a technique developed by Krupenkin as a new approach to high-power mechanical energy harvesting. It involves a conductive liquid that interacts with a nanofilm-coated surface to produce electrical energy.