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Product: Audio: Personal
Kinetic Mp3 Player   (+4)  [vote for, against]
Movement of the user will slowly charge a battery in an mp3 player

An mp3 player (would probably have to be solid-state storage for power concerns) that has a kinetic battery charger built in. As the user walks the inertial energy is transfered to a generator and then to a storage device. While the power requirements would probably make it difficult for this to completely power the device, It could act as a way to improve the play time on a single charge of the original battery.
-- photojunkie, Jan 20 2005

Solar powered MP3 player http://www.treehugg...solar_powered_m.php
Solar powered MP3 player (one of many) [csea, Jul 07 2007]

Shakable MP3 Player http://www.nytimes....7dcf7ef3396&ei=5070
Shake the MP3 Player to change tracks [csea, Jul 07 2007]

Human Powered MP3 Player Research http://campus.io.tu...f97/doc/kuipers.pdf
Cranking seems best [csea, Jul 07 2007]

They use kinetic capture mechanisms in watches all the time, so it should not be that heavy...
-- photojunkie, Jan 20 2005


True, but as photojunkie says, this would extend battery life rather than replace the battery.
-- david_scothern, Jan 20 2005


Or in the heels of your shoes. Or piezoelectric blah blah blah . . . .
-- contracts, Jan 20 2005


I was thinking of exactly the same thing yesterday, in work I have my mp3 player on a cord round my neck and I noticed it was swinging when I was walking round the warehouse. I thought it would be so good if this thing had a kinetic charger in it then it could be charging the battery whilst I'm walking, and with it being MP3 it doesn't use much more electric than a digital watch does, a solar powered MP3 player would probably also work fine.
-- darrenforster99, Jul 07 2007


That Sandisk "Shaker" isn't shake-powered. It has a battery in it--the shaking controls the song mix.
-- baconbrain, Jul 07 2007


[baconbrain],

Ah! Right your are. I should have read a bit more:

"After all, the idea of shaking something to mix up the contents — in this case a music playlist — is something even a baby can understand."

Link title corrected. Also came across a study that seems to say that shaking isn't an ideal power source for an MP3 player; they favor cranking. [link]
-- csea, Jul 07 2007


Should be quite bakeable, especially for flash-ram units as they use very little power. Hard-drives are a bit more power hungry.
-- wagster, Jul 07 2007



random, halfbakery