Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

h a l f b a k e r y
Free set of rusty screwdrivers if you order now.

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, best, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: Browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

User:
Pass:
Login
Create account.


       

Walking - Powered Battery Charger
A wearable pendulum and flywheel that would be used to recharge personal electronics.
 
(0)
  [vote for,
against]


This was sort of inspired by an idea posted here for a kinetic cellphone that would be recharged by spinning the phone on a flat surface. Make a kinetic battery charger that would be powered by the back-and-forth motion of a person's leg while walking. The pendulum would work like the pendulum on a pedometer, but would run up against a flywheel which would in turn generate an electrical charge that could be used to recharge batteries on personal electronic devices like PDA's, cellphones, mp3 players, etc.

feedmewithyourkids, Jul 03 2003

[link]






       Related to this, in terms of using people-powered transit to charge your devices - a battery charger that would mount on your bicycle like kinetic bike lights (drawing power from the spinning of the back wheel) would be great for people who ride their bikes to and from work.

feedmewithyourkids, Jul 03 2003
  

       Great idea. It would be a lot like self-winding watches. I don't think it could power much, though. Have you ever played around with a wind-up flashlight. The number of turns it takes to make three LED's glow for four minutes is rediculous.

fogfreak, Jul 04 2003
  
      
[annotate]
  


 
back: main index
 business 
 car 
 computer 
 culture 
 fashion 
 food 
 halfbakery 
 home 
 other 
 product 
 public 
 science 
 sport