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Flowing Blood Could Power iPods and Cell Phones

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posted on Mar, 31 2009 @ 01:12 AM
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www.livescience.com...


Power generated from flowing blood, simple body movements or a gentle breeze could one day be converted to electricity to charge iPods, cell phones and other personal electronic devices.

Researchers reported today they can harvest energy by converting low-frequency vibrations, like simple body movements, the beating of the heart or movement of the wind, into electricity by using zinc oxide nanowires that conduct the electricity.

The nanowires are piezoelectric — they generate an electric current when subjected to mechanical stress. Other schemes have been devised to generate power in a backpack as you hike or from a device attached to the knee. Those are comparatively bulky, however.

Nano devices are tiny. The diameter and length of the wires used in the new technique are 1/5,000th and 1/25th the diameter of a human hair. "This research will have a major impact on defense technology, environmental monitoring, biomedical sciences and even personal electronics," said lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang, Regents' Professor, School of Material Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.


This technology is pretty amazing. The situations in which this could be useful are endless.

I can't count how many times my phone has died at the worst times.



posted on Mar, 31 2009 @ 02:51 AM
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reply to post by TV_Nation
 


I agree, the possibilities of this technology are endless. I will say however, I am a bit surprised they are not thinking about using this technology in electric cars. If simple human movements are enough to create power, why not use this technology to power a car which is continuously subjected to a multitude of vibrations? Though I doubt this technology would completely power a car, it would at the very least augment its power requirements. I suspect we will hear a great deal about this technology in the relatively near future.

[edit on 31-3-2009 by BluegrassRevolutionary]



posted on Mar, 31 2009 @ 10:42 AM
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reply to post by BluegrassRevolutionary
 


The vibrations cars are under are kind of the result of the car moving. I could see something like this replacing the alternator the way thermocouples have for some diesels, or even charging batteries to power a hybrid system but you couldn't run the car off of them alone.



 
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