ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Fancy Pants
As fabulous as Former D.C. administrative law judge Roy Pearson thinks his lost pair of pants were (last item), bet they couldn’t charge his iPod or cell phone. The Los Angeles Times reports on hi-tech threads incorporating microscopic nanofibers spun from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), an organic plastic that can keep your gadgets juiced:
Researchers at UC Berkeley are perfecting microscopic fibers that can produce electricity from simple body motions such as bending, stretching and twisting. The filaments, which resemble tiny fishing lines, may soon be woven into clothing and sold as the ultimate portable generators.
It could take three years or more before it hits the store shelves, but the technology is already being hailed as a breakthrough. …
For now, the "smart power suit" is still a lab experiment, said UC Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Liwei Lin, who is overseeing the development of the fibers. …
It would take about 100,000 fibers to produce enough power for an electrical watch and 1 million fibers to generate enough current to power an iPod. But a bundle of 1 million fibers would be only about the size of a grain of sand.
Lin said the fibers can soak up the untapped energy produced by the human body, a remarkably efficient natural generator. The more vigorous the motion, the more power can be harvested, making knees and elbows and other joints prime spots for the strands.
The strands take advantage of piezoelectricity, which produces energy through "applied stress," similar to the heat generated when rubbing hands together.
Multiple dips in the washing machine won't hurt - the fibers are flexible and resistant to heat and chemicals. They're also small enough to blend unobtrusively into most garments.
Looks like the Energizer Bunny’s days are numbered.
You know the scary thing about the human generator fibers? Prison labor to generate power. But then again the good thing about it, if it can be used so, is people maybe donating a few calisthenics or something. I could see sending these to the Third World like they do hand cranked computers already. Power without the grid as it were. If the technology pans out it could be incredible!
Reply to this