Real Human Batteries?, page 1

Hey atlest it's not body heat right? But I wouldn't put it passed them to be doing tests on that too....

Power from blood could lead to 'human batteries'

A device that produces electricity from blood could be used to turn people into "human batteries".

Researchers in Japan are developing a method of drawing power from blood glucose, mimicking the way the body generates energy from food.

Theoretically, it could allow a person to pump out 100 watts - enough to illuminate a light bulb.

But that would entail converting all the food eaten by the individual into electricity. In practice, less power would be generated since food is needed by the body.

However the scientists say the "bio-nano" generator could be used to run devices embedded in the body, or sugar-fed robots.


The team at electronics giant Panasonic's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory near Kyoto has so far only managed to produce very low power levels.

But the scientists ultimately expect to gain much greater performance from the device.

The battery is based on an enzyme capable of stripping glucose of its electrons, The Engineer magazine reported.

Dr Kazuo Eda, heading the research, said: "It is like the metabolism of food. Human bodies can process glucose and obtain energy. When glucose is oxidised, electrons can be obtained."

He believed bio-nano fuel cells were the next step for researchers after generators powered by hydrogen, natural gas and methanol now being developed for the car and energy industries.

PA

[Edited on 8-8-2003 by Curiosity]

lol
I wonder what the possible use for this is?
animal batteries?

www.newscientist.com...

Virtual reality conquers sense of taste
14:49 31 July 03

Food companies cooking up a novel product will soon be able to check how elderly people will fare when they try to chew on it, thanks to a device that mimics the taste and "mouthfeel" of food.

Already, virtual reality devices have been built that try to simulate experiences for four of our five senses - vision, hearing, touch and smell. But the complexity of the sense of taste has made it difficult for computers to conquer.

Taste combines the feel of food in the mouth with chemical and even auditory cues. Hiroo Iwata of the University of Tsukuba in Japan and colleagues call it the "last frontier of virtual reality".

But it is a frontier they have now crossed. "The food simulator is the first media technology that is put into the mouth," says Iwata.

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