Friday, February 08, 2008

Knee dynamo taps 'people power'

A stroll around the park may soon be enough to charge the raft of batteries needed in today's power-hungry gadgets.

US and Canadian scientists have built a novel device that effortlessly harvests energy from human movements.

The adapted knee brace, outlined in the journal Science, can generate enough energy to power a mobile phone for 30 minutes from one minute of walking.


I can't help wondering how much human-power could be harnessed without rendering workaday life unbearable. Could becoming a carbon-based bipedal battery even become fashionable, given time? With the right combination of unobtrusive technology, I don't see why not.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Using humans as batteries...
The Matrix is real, pass the word.