Here at Ecofriend we just love everything green and irrespective of where the innovation came from and how it has been presented, we try and tend to take the best positives out of it. This is not to say that shooting down those eco-hazards masquerading under the green cover is not what we do as I personally tend to enjoy that even more. But everything new needs to find its place in the world and sometimes these are more meaningful than all the criticism in the world. But then there ones that border on the verge of insanity and are down right crazy making your eyes pop-out with stuff that ranges from the most unlikely to the most disgusting. Here is the list of the 10 craziest human-powered gadgets and technologies which are aimed at conserving conventional power. The crazy ones vary from juggling boobs used to harness energy to powering your cell with your own waste! Read on for uninhibited craziness…
Urine-Powered Battery: That’s Cheap!
Just imagine power getting generated from urine! According to the researchers, urine-powered batteries would be one of the cheapest, disposable, and renewable sources of energy – the perfect power source for disposable healthcare test kits called biochips. There are now even Cell Phones powered by this crazy concept; in the making that is. So start getting used to peeing in the cups!!
Kinetic Energy: Walk up your charge!
Designed by Wilma van Boxtel of Australia, the device is perfect for someone like me who almost never stops walking around my living room or on my terrace when on phone. Designed as a very simple ankle band, which you can also wear it around your arms if that’s were you move more, it stores the energy by your movements through this kinetic device. When necessary you plug your mobile or whatever gadget into the connector (you probably need an adapter because all brands are having a different connector) and upload your gadget. For my mobile, I surely will need an adapter too by the look of things. So next time you are on the road and are out of charge- Just run!
Multifunction Solar Lingerie… Green inside!
The Japanese who are usually a little too conservative have thrown all conservatism out of the window to create these outrageous pieces of lingerie that have plenty of use than just covering up some vital assets. The solar panel sits on the bra to generate some electricity that powers a display board to display messages. It is organic, it is green and it will sure as hell produce some ‘heated energy’
Pioneer Shoe: Kick up some power
Chen Feijun and Zhao Bin have invented a shoe called Pioneer that converts kinetic energy of walking into electrical energy, which powers a headlight at the front of the shoe. This shoe has a battery within itself which once charged can be successfully used to power a headlight for twelve hours (the maximum scope of the LED headlight is 1.5m to the front). This shoe has all the safety gears to keep the batter, light and your feet intact. Now you can jog all day and light up your room at night. Very convenient indeed…
Light Protection System: Wear your own taillights!
Light-protection-system, designed by Manuel Perez Prada of Germany, is friendly to the environment because of the use of electrical induction technique. Energy is produced by movement of the human body (Much like the many kinetic energy devices in the past few months). It also includes the development of a multifunctional clip-system, so that the lights can be used in various ways and situations for protection. The light has a good visibility and is because of the use of electrical induction, the gadget is very light in comparison to lights, which use a battery as energy source. In case of most modern light the battery is the heaviest part of the light. Because of the use of LEDs and the electrical induction the light has a long life and can be environmentally sealed. Helps people in fog immensely.
Kite: Generating electricity for 100,000 homes… Maybe!
Researchers from the Delft University Of Technology, Netherlands have made this come true after their success of flying a 10 square meter kite to a generator that could produce 10 kilowatts of power. The system at Laddermill use these flying patterns to maximize power the kites can generate. Estimating that they could generate power at less than 4p per kilowatt-hour, which is comparable to coal power and less than half the cost of electricity from wind turbines. Flying kites in a figure of eight pattern means the air flowing over them travels even faster than the wind speed.
When a kite needs to be reeled in, it is angled so that it falls out of the sky like a glider, without the need for much power. Future plans also include using a 50 kilowatt kite and a 100 megawatt array called the Laddermill that could potentially power 100,000 homes!
Japanese Railway extracts energy from passengers!
East Japan Railway Company is aiming to develop these environment friendly railway stations that will be human powered. In short, passengers create electricity. The system relies on a series of ‘piezo’ elements embedded in the floor under the ticket gates, which generate electricity from the pressure and vibration they receive as people walk over it. The technology is under trial at the JR-East head office in Shibuya. Cool new technique indeed!
Philips powers your music with your knees!
The electric generator designed by Philips allows you to produce energy on the move and it produces energy with apparent ease as you strap it on and power up your music player or iPhone. The ‘on the jog’ device is light, comfortable and is a kinetic energy generator that changes your energy in to electric form allowing you to never run on the move. It apparently is very light and without heavy batteries it is simple and easy to put on. Just keep the knees in shape.
Dance up to light up the club!
We close with some good old partying and fun. This is the first green nightclub in England and does achieve the status in some fashion. The most foot-tapping green element is that it has installed a dance floor that allows the dancers to generate up to 60% of the club’s energy. So now you can do salsa, cha-cha-cha, jazz or simple hip-hop all night long and you will contribute to the green factor by generating energy. Although entry to the club costs £10, people who reach there foot, bicycle or public transport will be allowed in free. Produce the required proof though!
Energy from Bouncing Breasts… Baywatch turns mega-source!
This would have been a hands down job for Pamela Anderson a while back, but I did hear that Pamela was changing her ‘look’. But still with this technology available the cast of Baywatch could have produced more power than the biggest thermal station in the world week in and week out. The brain behind this is Adrienne So from San Francisco. She believes that women with big cup size can help generate energy from the bouncing movements of her breast.
According to Professor Wang of Georgia Tech, the design would probably be made of elastic material to allow for more motion than traditional sports bras. Also it will need to be layered so that a special nano-wire fabric can be integrated. This in turn will have wires 1/1,000th the width of a human hair that will help generate electricity from the bouncing motion. A square meter of fiber produces about 80 milliwatts of power, which is enough to run a small device like a cell phone. Cool…
That does it for today and I hope you had as much fun as I did regarding the unusual and maybe for some the insane ways of going green. This has been a real fun journey and we obviously hope to bring you more craziness very shortly. This might appear to be all in good fun but it does have some very serious undertones and just tells you that we need to find every green possible energy source to reduce the damage on the planet. We really thank all the innovators of the above 10 gadgets for giving us the pleasure of viewing them and while we are on it, one humble thought- How about harnessing kinetic energy from the rocking beds each night?? Maybe going too far… All in good green fun. See you soon again with more craziness…
