Udostępnij za pośrednictwem


Future geek advantage? An inability to sit still?

Maybe I should stop trying to teach my children to sit still? Their hyperactivity is really just training for a future powering their own electronics with microbiomotion? Hrm.

Every heartbeat and every fidgety movement that a person makes while sitting at a computer carries with it a small amount of energy that could potentially be scavenged. However, harvesting this biomotion is challenging because so much of it is irregular. Now, for the first time, researchers have demonstrated that a nanogenerator can be driven by irregular, low-energy biomotion, including the tapping of a human finger and a hamster's erratic running and scratching. Technology Review: Harnessing Hamster Power with a Nanogenerator

Since carrying around enough hamsters to power my Xbox 3600 may not be practical in the future, maybe I should practice fidgeting more myself?

I wish we could start by “harvesting” the heat generated by our ICE power plants... if we could recover the heat generated by my 5.7L iForce V8 engine in the Sequoia or my 636cc wind-up toy in the Ninja, we could probably improve the efficiency of either quite a bit. I know the Ninja’s only starting to “warm up” and “get happy” when it reaches 200°F, so... I’m just sayin’.

Once we can turn biomotion into more juice than a nanowatt, it would be nice not to have to charge my phone anymore!

Comments