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Piezoelectric Shoe Power 126

Posted by michael from the geek-fitness-program dept.
pedestrian writes: "Computer.org the IEEE site has an excellent, quite detailed, article about using 'a flexible piezoelectric foil stave to harness sole-bending energy and a reinforced PZT dimorph to capture heel-strike energy' and its potential to power 'wearable microelectronics'."
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Piezoelectric Shoe Power More

Piezoelectric Shoe Power

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  • This will be a real kick in the pants. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Puts a little spark in to you Kung Fu.
  • That's fine and all, but who want's to have tennis shoes on their car...besides Red Green?
  • Reminded me of the April fools joke I saw a few years ago about the little racing game you played with the mouse and it was supposed to recharge the battery on your laptop. I think it was IBM or Compaq. Lots of people fell for it. The game worked completely and only after you played the whole thing did it let you know you'd been fooled. Not that I'd know from experience.
  • I'd rather go without my computer than have to wear shoes all of the time...

    See what I mean... [barefooters.org]

  • This also creates a problem in that:
    Energy can only be changed into another sort of energy. It cannot be created nor can it be destroyed.

    See this paper from MIT. [brown.edu] Its a short history of the first two laws of thermodynamics.
  • All kidding aside (and there's a lot here!), I think there's a market right now for a product pair of shoes that could that could slowly recharge a set of AAA batteries. Like the auto manufacturers looking into fuel cells and hydrogen, Nike should look into this along with co-branding by Rayovac.

    A whole family could keep themselves in recharged battries all the time!
    --
  • Or even the idea of just "smart shoes" that would:
    • Have a LCD read out of how many steps/miles/km you've walked.
    • How you rate with what would be considered "a healthy walker"
    • Provide peer-2-peer based mp3 file sharing with other nearby walkers...
    So much for all kidding aside... =)
    --
  • Then I realized that cars bounce up and down all the time

    Dude, this is a part of what is called"ricing out." Persons with no taste and less intelligence add hydraulics to the suspension to make the car bounce up and down on command, effectively destroying resale value and making a HUGE reduction in drivability in one stroke.

    Thus, the car has to produce the energy to run the pumps, putting this into a loop of dimishing returns, as noted by the person talking about friction elsewhere in this thread:}



    Seriously, that is an interesting idea. The piezos would have to be prettty doggone tough to be worthwhile. Some of us are rather energetic drivers.

    --
  • Seriously, think of it: dance shoes that power cool blinking LED lights that are woven into the clothing and hair. You could even power a large array of leds and a processor that flashes a sign across your back. Add some position sensors for your limbs, and you can have stick figures on your "screen" that are dancing with you. It'd be perfect! The more you dance, the brighter you'd shine, attracting even more attention.

    Anybody got a patent application handy? :)
  • as for #4, why not try one of those "LED" flashlights that have been the rage of slashdot lately?
  • However, there might be a case made for extracting large amounts of energy: after all, when I go to the gym, I am deliberately trying to expend energy and get my heart rate up. Tapping into that for recharging a battery could be helpful for that.

    This is already being done in gyms. Take a look at the (electronic) cross-trainer machines and exercise bikes in there. LED and 7-segment displays, and no power cords. Hook up a generator to the pedals, and the person powers the equipment.

    Some machines do this, some don't. The stair climbers seem not to for some reason. It's interesting to be working out when a power outage hits, and seeing some machines still lit up, and some suddenly lose power.

  • The Viridian Archive [well.com] commentary on this concept is here [bespoke.org]... check out the Viridian page for some cool eco-slanted stuff - and hey, it's run by Bruce Sterling.

  • Anyone else find it vaguely unsettling that the IEEE Computer Society can't get it's graphics to line up properly?

    Everything looks OK from here. They are using CSS, though, so Nutscrape might not like it too much. (I wouldn't know, as I use IE.)

  • This is an excellent thing for those of us that continually shake our legs up and down all day long!
    .e.
    www.perceive.net [perceive.net]
  • It's like all those people thinking that it would be a great idea to put wind turbines on the car. The faster you drive, they think, the more wind you produce, the faster the turbines turn, and the faster you can drive.

    Go figure.

  • Hmmm. Put the devices that capture heel strike energy into the sidewalks in LA. Raise the price of gas to make people walk (done). Instant power plant!
  • a few nickels? last time i played DDR it cost me something like $1.50 USD per game.
  • I believe that the Fremen stillsuits were powered in a similar fashion, by the pumping action of the boots.
  • Forget those days of having to plug your treadmill in and pay exorbitant prices during California's supposed "power crisis".. Just order a "Walk-o-matic" treadmill... just put on the attached running shoes and as soon as you take your first step, the treadmill starts... Want to go faster... start making your pace faster and the increased current from the shoes automatically makes the treadmill go faster... same for slowing down... only $49,999.95 .... call now.. 1-800-WALKIIES


    ---------------
  • Okay, am I the only one who can come up with reasons why connecting your penis (assuming you are of that gender) to the power grid is a bad thing?


  • Install the piezo stuff directly into the foot and then run wires throughout the body. You can put tiny plugs wherever you might need power, for example in the wrist for a watch. I guess it would only be a matter of time before people started using the internal wiring to power other organs.
  • My guess is that the electricity generated by those piezos wouldn't make up for the extra energy required to haul them around in your car all day.

    Formal Analysys forthcoming...

  • Anyone else find it
    vaguely unsettling that the ...

    No I find it distinctly unsettling

  • I don't really understand your comment, but let me explain a bit more.

    Adding the piezos to the car will increase the mass of the car, which will increase the gas consumption (i.e. energy requirements) required for acceleration and rolling friction.

    My guess is that increased energy (as measure in gas) would be greater than the energy produced by the piezos in the shock. In affect you'd be trading gas for energy at a worse efficiency than could be achieved by just using a larger alternator.

    Let me put another way:
    You - "I installed these piezos in my shocks that produce X microwatts
    Me - "yea but your gas mileage has gone down by Y mpg which is greater than the cost of the electricity produced as measured by Z"

    Can I be any more vague for you, AC?

  • Maybe next they'll have piezoelectric seats to "harness the butt-pressure energy"?
    Piezo-pants!
  • thousands of health-nut runners

    Actually, I've recently been wondering about something similar. At all these health clubs, there are people using resistance machines to build up their muscles. All the work they do on the machines is going to waste as heat. And then I'm sure at least some part of the building is air-conditioned. It may sound rather strange, but what about a power-generating gym where you have all these people coming in to work out on your generator exercizing machines. At the very least, they could save on some of the power by using the electricity created by the people to run the air conditioning.

    However, this idea would likely be shot down when the generators are designed because the cost of buying all the generators and then savings off the electricity bill would probably simply even out and it would just be a good-feeling thing. Like, you could spend just as much money at the power-generating gym as you would at the normal power-wasting gym but you would get a good feeling that the energy expended during your workout went to good use rather than simply being expended as heat.

    Then again, maybe the generators wouldn't be all that expensive and these actually do exist.

    (Just imagine: riding a bicycle creates electricity that can be used to run an air-conditioner that cools you as you ride. There will still be energy lost somewhere, but that would at least be better than running the AC on a coal-burning generator.)


    kickin' science like no one else can,
    my dick is twice as long as my attention span.
  • Are the trolls still around? Is Cathleen still part of them?

    I don't think I've ever quite recovered from seeing Wes Borg drop his pants onstage.


  • I can see it now. You're wearing your Discman that hooks to your shoes...if you don't run fast enough your Discman goes off until you run around some more.
  • Sounds like some of the old british workhouses, they had a large wheel that was like a rudimentary stairmaster, used it for power where a watermill wasn't effective and mules were too expensive
  • A cool idea would be to move these things out of your shoes... and INTO your feet themselves.
    Hell, sew them all over inside your body-- your pacemaker would never need new batteries... and
    who knows, future electrical implants would have a perfectly reliable power source...
  • Or somehow combining them with tires.

    Why bother with this when every car has an alternator, charging system, and battery? Just plug into the cigarette lighter!

  • Someone probably said "What are the odds of that happening" too close to an Improbability Field again. Last time that happened Bush got Florida.
  • Don't you remember the slowly inflating airbags that were supposed to save lives? A product like that is a clear indication of microsoft at work.

    ---=-=-=-=-=-=---

  • Yeah, now if they could just figure out how to use the pump power of the shoes to run water reclamation through a special suit, one could walk across the Sahara!

    mrgoat
  • Call me when they make a working Fremen suit. You never when one of those things would come in handy.
  • Yep. And it a good idea, but it *not* perpetual motion. what I found amusing was the assertion that it would run perpetually without any additional energy input.. i.e. charge it up once and the generators would forever charge the batteries after that.

  • Ok, if we really want to harness wasted energy, why not a device to capture the kinetic energy of my fingers while I'm typing? Most people can type so fast (as a matter of fact, look at the number of posts right after a news is posted on /.) that we can capture so much energy from the movement of the fingers.

    Imagine, feed this energy back into my laptop, and I can use my laptop forever, without the need to recharge it and plug it in.

  • would you believe two monkeys under my heals spinning crank-generators?

    ----

  • It's like all those people thinking that it would be a great idea to put wind turbines on the car. The faster you drive, they think, the more wind you produce, the faster the turbines turn, and the faster you can drive.
    And after a while you'll go faster than the speed of light, go back in time and be able to recharge your car in the past with all the energy you got from going so fast.

    Hm, yeah.
  • I wonder how long these shoes will last? Once the shoe starts to wear out will the crystals still work? Also could you hook these guys up to a frequency generator? You would then have a vibrating shoe. Could be fun at parties!
  • ... Especially for couch potatos...
  • If you put four of these shoes on the feet of gerbils running on their power generating wheels, would you double the power generated?
  • ...one giant step for turning the lights back on in California!
  • Nickel arcades. DDR 5 songs for 25 cents. w00t
  • This would be cool for offroading though. When you get to the campsite you have a battery fully charged for all your modern day appliances like electric lanters (I'm from kentucky) and such.

  • Isn't he supposed to post right around now?

  • The US and other Militarys might make interesting use of this technology. They're constantly looking to improve their baseline asset, the footsoldier. Many nights I've spent watching the discovery channel, and on more than one occation, they've aired the rather tacky display of soldier-mounted computers and such. Small camera's mounted on rifles, with LCD displays. The list is endless.

    So, if this technology is perfected, and coupled with other methods of energy conservation, you may one day have an elite footsoldier running windows95 (98 if they're lucky), using Exchange to battle the forces of evil.
  • wouldyabelieve THIS MUCH?
  • Design a pair of gloves with these in the fingertips and any coder can power their own intravenous caffeine drip.

    See, Perpetual Motion DOES exist!

  • Your piezoelectrics are untied!
  • The movement of wrists and finger joints should be able to generate a decent amount of power while typing. Of course the the ends of the glove fingers would have to be cut off, as anyone knows who has ever tried to type while wearing gloves.
    ----------
  • Then you want to go to the english portion of http://www.powerskip.de [powerskip.de]

  • Heh... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How would you like to be on the receiving end of one of those shocks? *scuff*scuff*scuff* ZAP *
  • My first thought was, "Wait a minute: the piezos generate electricity when they are being squished by your feet. Cars ride along horizontally." Then I realized that cars bounce up and down all the time. What about attaching piezos to the shock absorbers?
  • to drinking your own waste ?
  • Does that means that it's not okay to bend spoons anymore???

    --
    Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness.

  • Indeed, although that was just using the forward motion of the foot to move water. This generates electricity.

  • Pump (Score:2)

    by sharkey ( 16670 )
    Will they use this to complement The Pump(tm)? Will you be able to generate power by pumping yourself? Or will you be able to generate anime-style power-blasts by jumping after pumping yourself?

    --
  • Hmm, how about laying piezo electric mats on the roads. With all the cars driving over them, they would surely produce enough power for LED based traffic lights?
  • If the device was actually in the shoe, I don't see a lot of demand. Who really wants a wire running from their shoe to somewhere else on your body. So I'd be all for a Maxwell Smart-ish "Shoe Phone" that never needed charging... But wiring my pager to my shoe, or strapping a couple double-A batteries to the back seems less than desireable.

    The other question is, how many of us geeks actually spend most of the day on their feet. Might be a good thing, we'd be in better shape as a whole... "Gotta run, battery's dead"
  • don't you remember walking around with your socks on building up static electricity to shock your little sister with.

  • How about making sidewalks out of piezo electric materials, or the walls and floor of any room where you have athletics or even loud sounds ?

    Roadways anyone ? You could sandwich piezoelectric materials in between layers of asphalt to help power street lights at least.

    Only thing stopping you is ummm...practiciality.

    But if the materials were cheap enough, well then it would be interesting at least. We may be able to generate significant power if this was deployed over wide areas.

  • I was thinking keyboards. Not so much the dreaded "windows" key, but if attached to the 10 most commonly used letters...rstlnecmda...
  • ... who sit around on our asses typing all day? I doubt I'd store up enough energy for a day of mobile computing, just walking a block and a half from my car.

    Maybe next they'll have piezoelectric seats to "harness the butt-pressure energy"?

    ---

  • me@host> cc -o program program.c
    cc: compilation success
    me@host> run program
    system: this program requires more power. Now YOU have to run. Run Forest, run!
  • I've always felt that the fringes of applied science tended to produce all sorts of neat advances, and keep the field as a whole from stagnating. Weird science* is good for the soul!

    And you can always tell that you're reading about weird science if you find yourself looking at the date, just to make sure that it wasn't published on April 1st.

    In other words, good on em!

    * Or weird applications of normal science. Take your pick.

  • ...2 points modded down for a redundant post posted #4 at no more than 2 minutes after the story goes up and no more than a minute after the redundant joke?

    --
    dman123 forever!
  • now if it was a piezoelectric condom, that could be really something. We could put the electricity back into the energy grid and there would never be any shortage of power...
  • Well it give us Americans the perfect excuse to go out and exersize. So what if everyone in China wore a pair of these shoes, climbed up on a chair and jumped down to the floor?
  • FLAMEBAIT?!?! Moderators, please get a sense of humor, ok? Please?

    The confused should read my parent.
  • April Fool's Day aleady?
    ---
  • What about attaching piezos to the shock absorbers?

    Or somehow combining them with tires. There is some squishing going on there as you drive.
    ---
  • What about those of us who spend most of the day sitting at a desk? How about some way of harnessing the energy expended in depressing the keys on my laptop? That might be easier to do -- and it doesn't involve having to wear something.

    Another problem: Wear & tear. I've noticed that in only a few months, I typically wear my heels down on one side. Wonder if these researchers might be interested in development of tougher heel materials?

    The article mentions that only a small amount of power can be extracted from the shoe without impacting comfort. However, there might be a case made for extracting large amounts of energy: after all, when I go to the gym, I am deliberately trying to expend energy and get my heart rate up. Tapping into that for recharging a battery could be helpful for that.

    I wonder how much energy could be extracted from the pulse... And then there is body heat...
  • Well, I own a set of K2 Ski that do the same thing, using the energy building up to flash a little light on the Ski. It is supposed to be dampening the Ski, I see it as a toy (looks funny while night skiing). Nevertheless, there is a substantial amount of energy building up that could be used differently. I think it is a nice idea, but there are many problems to solve ...
  • I would like a shoe that stores up sole-bending energy to help me go up hills. More than I would want to waste it running my wrist watch or somethin'.
  • Ok, maybe generating power in shoes is feasible, even if it is geeky. But, gas-powered underwear is where I absolutely draw the line.
  • ...fields that capture energy of ribcage expansion and contraction due to breathing. After all, when you're sitting, you're still breathing. When you're sleeping, you're still breathing! So the mechanism would be able to generate power off a physical activity you never stop doing.

    (apologies to Frank Herbert for blatantly ripping this idea off the stillsuits in Dune)

    -Kasreyn

  • K2 has a ski that works on a related principle. On skis, you want to get rid of or dampen low-frequency vibrations, so they built a system whereby a piezoelectric unit is actuated, turning some of the kinetic energy of the vibration into electricity, which then goes to an LED on the top of the ski. Then, the energy simply leaves the ski as light. The system seems to work very well...I've tried these skis and may actually buy a pair later this year, I liked them so much.

    With the damage we do to our knees and hips walking and jogging on unnaturally hard surfaces like concrete and normal flooring, I wonder if there is any (minor as it may be) benefit to this sort of system from a shock-absorbing standpoint?

  • I know! Stick a tube down everyone's throat to supply them with food, water, and sedatives, then pack them side-by-side in oxygen bottles, and collect their heat and bioelectricity.

    We could create a virtual reality world for them to inhabit, and jack it directly into their cortex. It would consume infinitesimally as much energy as the real one.

    We could create AIs to help manage them. If we make the AIs smart enough, the AI's could be self-managing, freeing the rest of us up to enter the virtual world, too.

    --Blair
    "Man. You think the Internet is addicting..."
  • > and ground half a pond of coffee off each visitor

    Woah. That's a lot of coffee. =)
  • You just described one part of "active suspension" technology, IIRC.
    --
  • By the time this kind of systems will be able to power wearable computers can you imagine the type of electricity generated by a car.

    "What's the power of the tires you want with the car ?"

  • Re:A more insteresting use: cars (Score:3)

    by Dr.Dubious DDQ ( 11968 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @11:18AM (#132356) Homepage
    You just described one part of "active suspension" technology, IIRC.

    "ActiveSuspension"? When did Microsoft get into making cars!?!?!

    Have they released the IntelliAirbags and DirectSmog drivers yet? :-)


    ---

  • Bad logic? (Score:3)

    by slickwillie ( 34689 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:52AM (#132357)
    Harnessed unobtrusively, this wasted energy could be used in a variety of low-power applications, such as pagers, health monitors, self-powered emergency receivers, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and emergency beacons or locators

    So, if you have a heart attack and stop walking, your health monitor and emergency beacon will lose power?

  • Hikers (Score:3)

    by DeadSea ( 69598 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @10:09AM (#132358) Homepage Journal
    I'm planning to hike the Appalachain Trail next summer. As a geek, I'm planning to bring along a few lightweight electronics.
    1. Palm Pilot - lighter than paper copies of maps, trailguides, and light reading.
    2. A Digital Watch - Although those will run for years on a small light battery anyway
    3. A Cell Phone - Anybody have any experience with solar powered batteries [snpower.com], which is what I'm currently planning?
    4. A flashlight - Just a mini-mag-light, but it would be nice not to have to carry extra batteries
    If there were something like this available by the time I leave, I would get it in a heartbeat. Hiking all day with a heavy pack would create more than enough energy for a couple hours of palm pilot use and a phone call or two.

    Of course they say "an ounce on your foot is like a pound on your back", so it might be better just to carry two extra AA batteries anyway. And of course if I'm carrying too much the palm pilot and the phone would be the first things to get mailed home.

  • that's at least 5 years old (Score:3)

    by daniell ( 78495 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:45AM (#132359) Homepage
    I recall seeing this device featured on television in that show hosted by Alan Alda. It was at MIT where someone showed a "computer" that collected energy from a piezoelectric component placed in the arc of the shore. With the stored energy it had the capability of trasmitting some information (a business card type thing) to another such device using the wearer's body as an antena and the user's handshake with the user of another such device as both the trigger and means to do so.

  • Bad news for us all (Score:3)

    by tycage ( 96002 ) <tycage@gmail.com> on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:43AM (#132360) Homepage

    Sadly the first application will be to power the little red LEDs that are in the shoes the kids in my neighborhood wear when playing basketball.

    --Ty

  • Re:A more insteresting use: cars (Score:3)

    by PopeAlien ( 164869 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:58AM (#132361) Homepage Journal
    This reminds me of a guy I knew that wanted to build an electric car with genrators running off all the wheels.. He figured that would let his car run forever for free. ..This must have been before the discovery of friction.

  • Even more of a reason.... (Score:3)

    by RyuuzakiTetsuya ( 195424 ) <taiki@@@cox...net> on Friday June 22, 2001 @10:11AM (#132362)
    to play Dance Dance Revolution! 8) Depending on how luck you are you could theoritcally power a small computer with a few nickels.
  • Now they will be jumping up and down in line in front of you while you are waiting to get your #1 meal at McDonalds.

  • other use... (Score:3)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @11:06AM (#132364) Homepage Journal

    Power a synthesizer to emit squeaks from shoes

    To power, um, a small video camera on the toe of your, um, shoe, um, which faces upward

    Power turnsignals for mall walkers

    Li'l Bastard Elektr-O-Shok(tm) static build and zapper kit

    "Is that a PDA with video capture in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

    --
    All your .sig are belong to us!

  • Inspector gadget says... (Score:3)

    by Darth RadaR ( 221648 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @10:43AM (#132365) Journal
    Go-go gadget boots!
  • ... who sit around on our asses typing all day?
    Do you swing your legs or bounce your knees up and down while you're sitting at your computer? There might be potential for a watt or two there.

    It would be great for all the kids in elementary school, too. "I'm not fidgeting, I'm charging my Palm Pilot!"
    --

  • Why do all the work yourself? (Score:3)

    by blang ( 450736 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @10:02AM (#132367)
    All this walking around feels lame. Harvest the energy from other people instead. Steal a littel bit of electricity from your phone hookup. Tap intothe radiowaves, they carry some energy.

    Mount a powerful spring on your door, so that all guests are forced to contribute a few newtonmeters. (This idea was introduced by the late Andre Franquin in his comic books on Gaston Lagaffe. Gaston pressed a glass of fresh orange use, and ground half a pond of coffee off each visitor. )

  • On a related note... (Score:4)

    by artemis67 ( 93453 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:48AM (#132368)
    Governor Gray Davis belives he can solve California's energy crisis, if he can a) get all Californians to wear these shoes, and b) organize a state-wide conga line.

  • Advantage: jocks. (Score:4)

    by bons ( 119581 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:50AM (#132369) Homepage Journal
    This year the CalTech Beavers sucessfully completed their bid for the National Football Championship cup, easily beating the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Nokia Bowl.

    A spokesperson for Caltech claims that by improving on poorly made MIT technology they were able to improve their skills simply by employing mobile computing devices. The helmet shields displayed all necessary information including which taunts were the most effective, the current play, and an overhead view of the field.

    Not all the students at Caltech are happy though. Todd M. is quoted as saying, "This gives a distinct advantage to healthy people who are willing to walk, or, god-forbid, run. This encouragement of healthy behavior is clearly against everything that nerds have stood up (or more importantly sat-down) for all these years.

    Still, the celebrations are continuing with signs all over the campus advertising "Free (as in beer) Beer!"

  • Well that give new meaning... (Score:5)

    by Mr. Flibble ( 12943 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:40AM (#132370) Homepage
    to the word "Sneakernet".

  • At last! (Score:5)

    by bravehamster ( 44836 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:40AM (#132371) Homepage Journal

    With this soul-bending energy, we can match the likes of Microsoft blow-for-blow in this titanic struggle for the very souls of people everywhe....

    Oh, you said _sole_ bending energy. Well I guess that's cool too.

  • These Are Already On Sale In England.... (Score:5)

    by cybrpnk ( 94636 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:48AM (#132372)
    The Electric Shoe Company [theelectricshoeco.com] in England has piezo-generating shoes on sale. Somebody wore them thru the desert for 100KM abd they worked great. The power level is enough to power cell phones!

  • Hello, Chief? (Score:5)

    by Unknown Bovine Group ( 462144 ) on Friday June 22, 2001 @09:35AM (#132373) Homepage
    Hello, Chief? I have to go walk around. The shoe phone is almost out of juice.

    Missed it by THAT MUCH.

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