Your Heartbeat Your New iPod/iPhone Charger?
08.16.07 - 01:21pm
What would it be like to live in a world void of the need to plug in and charge your mobile phone or your iPod? It may be world we are closer to living in than we think.
“There is a big drive towards using wireless devices, but one of the challenges in supplying power to these devices is that 
batteries have a finite supply that needs to be replaced. We have a spin-out company that is now looking at powering pacemakers from the movement of the heart. ”
“As the power consumption of electronic devices continues to fall, the opportunity to use these devices to power them becomes more apparent. The potential is there for devices like mobile phones and MP3 players being at least augmented by vibration generators. There is quite a lot of energy available on a human such as the impact of a heel on the floor which could also be used,” said Dr Steve Beeby.
The British Researchers at Southampton have invented a power generator that is powered by vibrations, in this case the vibrations of the human heart when it beats. They say it may not be long before you can power your iPod or iPhone by simply placing it in your breast pocket as you go about your day.
The devices use kinetic energy and works on the same principles as the kinetic powered watch. The watch uses the movement of a coil between magnets to produce an electric current.
The researchers have found that they can tune the generator into a movements particular frequency and can then obtain far more power than is in the watch.
The generator pictured above is less than one cubic centimeter in actual size and while harnessing the energy of vibrations is not a new theory and one that has been developed in the past this is the first time that one as powerful has been created, holding 10 times more power than any device that has come before.
The generator was created by tweaking the technology for charging small mobile devices and re-creating it specifically to take the place of the batteries in a pacemaker. Since the battery wears out, surgery has to be done to replace the batteries. This new generator would eliminate that need.
Researchers are also looking into taking power from the vibrations made from cars driving on the roads. Paul Lee, the director of technology, media and telecommunications at business consultants Deloitte Research, said: “There are two strands of development in the mobile phone industry which are to either cram as many power hungry applications into a phone as possible or to make a phone as efficient as possible.”
Just a side thought: Can you imagine, charging your iPod while on your morning run? The slang would be, “How was your run?” Answer, “Well today I got a full charge, yesterday was lousy and I only got a half a charge, but today… all charged up.”
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