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Technology

Freecharge Windup Mobile Phone Power Source 151

Posted by timothy from the on-the-go dept.
Harry Morgan writes: "The UK's Guardian newspaper has an interesting article in it's Online Supplement concerning Freeplay's handheld, windup mobile phone power supply the Freecharge. Although larger and heavier than several spare batteries, it has two distinct advantages over the former, you don't have to turn the phone off to connect it and it will never go flat a long as your arms work!"
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Freecharge Windup Mobile Phone Power Source More

Freecharge Windup Mobile Phone Power Source

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  • Back in the early days of telephones, one had to turn a handcrank to get an operator... Then they were replaced with rotary dials... still crankin' but quicker than waiting for personal service. Then touch tone came along.. no more cranking! And now we have this... Ahhh, we've come so far... dan(crank calling)
  • The Freeplay link is not really a good link... :-/

    As for cell phones, I've got myself a Docomo F211i [nttdocomo.co.jp]. It weighs practically nothing and I can use it without charging for about a week.

    When will the US get their act together and stop relying on those massive bricks?
  • Very Viridian. It certainly seems like a lifesaver.

    Now, if only I could jack it up to my PDA and give it that last few seconds of oomph it needs to grab a critical number...

  • Never go flat (Score:5, Funny)

    by handsomepete ( 561396 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @08:57PM (#3676805) Journal
    and it will never go flat a long as your arms work!

    a heavy-hearted sigh is heard from the collective armless community of the world
    • Not to mention the serious crimp this will place in long-distance disarmament talks.
    • Well, this is one account I'll never use again. Oh, *sign*
    • and it will never go flat a long as your arms work!

      Hehe. Sadly, that's the story of my life.

    • Re:Never go flat (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      a heavy-hearted sigh is heard from the collective armless community of the world

      Fear not, soon someone will develop a hands-free version.
    • Yeah, this is how it all gets started. Those nasty small electronic gizmos will most certainly tell all their bigger, smarter brethren about who was the slave to the machine - a communications device noless. No thank you. I think I'll use batteries instead so that my phone, pda, what have you will not catch on to the fact that I can be used as a power source. The rest of you friggin idiots, you are going to doom us all to extinction. Didn't you pay attention, or where you getting popcorn during that part?
    • and it will never go flat a long as your arms work!

      Actually, I have a Freeplay radio, and while it works pretty well - you wind it up and then it plays for up to 30 minutes - it has one problem. While you're actually winding it there is no charging to the batteries and they die. Once you finish winding, which takes half a minute or so, then it starts generating power again and the radio works.

      So if the cell phone charger works like this, then it will "go flat" occasionally, until you can wind it up again.

    • I suppose that this guy [unoriginal.com], who slept on his arms last night, will have a bit of a problem.

      Ah, yes... Kids in the Hall... I miss you.

  • pre-emptive slashdotting? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CheechBG ( 247105 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @08:57PM (#3676808) Homepage
    nice, the host yanked the DNS link before even 5 comments were posted :)

    now that's what I call saving bandwidth (and also whoring out the hosting provider's info too) :)
    • We did not pull the DNS, the domain transferred
      in and from the looks of it never set up their
      DNS from the default settings.

      We're trying to contact the owners right now.

    • Re:pre-emptive slashdotting? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Boss: What happened?
      Admin: Our server was unually busy, so I disconnected our site.
      Boss: Why?
      Admin: That's my job! Monitoring... acting!
      Boss: Why was our server busy?
      Admin: A popular site linked to us, we were getting 1000x our normal traffic!
      Boss: All hits by people interested in our product?
      Admin: Well yes, if they clicked the link, they were interested.
      Boss: And you disconnected them?
      Admin: [..]

      • Re:pre-emptive slashdotting? (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        In the year 2002, Freecharge was begining...
        Boss: What happen!
        Admin: Someone set up us the Slashdot
        Boss: What you say!
        Admin: We get slashdotted
        Boss: Main server turn on
        Admin: Remove every DNS! For great justice

        Sorry about that. I know AYB is old, but I just couldn't resist when I saw the dialog begining with "What happened".

  • Honestly officer, it was an emergency, and I kept it between the lines with my knee

    As well, it will be a good excuse for that overdeveloped right arm (or left depending which way you bat) on geeeks who sit in front of their computer all day.

  • ... Why Windup? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eddy Johnson ( 467614 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @09:00PM (#3676823)
    Rather than constantly cranking your phone to get power (rather like that really annoying flashlight), why not make a round phone and rather than crank it, have an internal crack attached to a string - the Yo-Yo Phone!

    Play with it for a while, make a few calls, and play again to recharge.

    And if you can do a sleeper for more than five minutes, you get a discount on your monthly phone bill. "Walking the dog" with it will gain you bonus minutes as well.
    • Hell, don't stop there. Instead of a string, use the earpiece cord. That way folks can talk and recharge at the same time!
    • Play with it for a while, make a few calls, and play again to recharge.


      Better yet, just make it like these flashlights that you shake to power.


      No, seriously, these do exist [shoplifestyle.com]. The military loves 'em, because it means less batteries you have to carry and never worry about running out of power!

    • I think if you extract some rotational energy from a yo-yo to charge a battery, it'll be a lousy yo-yo... just sort of drop and then not have enough momentum to come back up again.
  • You know, renewable resources aside, if you imagine the amount of energy humans consume daily from physical work, and the amount of work it _should_ take (given 100% efficiency) to power these small devices, human effort is truely the ultimate renewable resource. I can't even imagine the efficiency, cost and energy savings of using human effort to offload the power requirements for small devices like this. Think of the energy, no only to produce, but to store, ship, sell, package, etc, batteries for small devices. Gone, hopefully, if this type of technology gains a foot hold (or arm hold, pardon the pun.)
    • human effort is truely the ultimate renewable resource
      I agree.

      I wish that they had more devices that helped to power the home. I would love to see an exercise bike that actually stored energy in a battery, or somehow supplemented the power being consumed by the house right now. The more resistance you add, the power you store.

      As for this battery in the article, I hope that they modify it to allow the user to adapt it to any piece of electronic [laptops, flashlights, gameboys, alarm clocks, etc.]
      • I've always hoped they could somehow turn health clubs into some sort of mini power station. All that energy being spent on absolutely nothing. I suppose the energy created is probably nothing compared to that the the club's AC units are putting out, though. The "green" health club would have to have no AC I guess.

        PS. Are exercise bikes (the ones with digital stats) powered by wall AC? It seems like they should at least make these human powered, if they're not already.

        • I've always hoped they could somehow turn health clubs into some sort of mini power station. All that energy being spent on absolutely nothing.
          That's an amazing idea. I've never even thought of that. So simple, yet brilliant. I'm not trying to suck up or anything. It's just that the only thing that I've seen as being a hinderance to all of this is that one person turning a generator wouldn't produce enough for him to make it very practical, once you factor in the costs of electricity [from competing sources] and the hardware. However the costs really become reduced once you reuse the hardware, it would really make a difference. I wonder where we could get this ball rolling.
          I suppose the energy created is probably nothing compared to that the the club's AC units are putting out, though. The "green" health club would have to have no AC I guess.
          True, but certainly the technology is out there to convert back and forth. Who knows? Maybe if enough people begin to use Stair Masters, then there will be a AC generators.
          PS. Are exercise bikes (the ones with digital stats) powered by wall AC? It seems like they should at least make these human powered, if they're not already.
          I don't know for sure, but searching through google for exercise bikes should turn up a few companies that would give a few specs. It would probably be best to wait to find out later on. I think that it would be wise to see who would be willing to try a new idea.

          I'm so interested in this that I'm tempted to present the idea to a few companies to see how well it is received.

          One idea, might be to generate enough electricity to turn fans to cool entire buildings. I don't see any problems with this, *if* there are enough people. At Expo 86, they put out a bunch of exercise bikes and people just came up there to ride them to see if they could get all of the lights to light up. As more electricity was generated, the next light would light up, till you reached the top. Perhaps apartment buildings could convert a basement room for this type of thing. People may be willing to cycle more if their own apartments were being cooled off.
          • PS. Are exercise bikes (the ones with digital stats) powered by wall AC? It seems like they should at least make these human powered, if they're not already.


            I've seen them both ways. (Also battery powered in smaller displays), but the human powered ones bugged me. You had to do a couple steps (pedals) then the display would lite up so you could select things. The other ones never used much power as I recall (mostly LEDs and the such), but that's just my 2cents.
            • ...the human powered ones bugged me. You had to do a couple steps (pedals) then the display would lite up so you could select things. The other ones never used much power as I recall (mostly LEDs and the such)...
              I'm glad that you brought this up. In a room where there is plenty of light, perhaps they could have solar panels to get the electronics working, like a calculater, and perhaps enough to store a few settings, and what have you. Once you get going on the bike, then you'll get all of the pretty colored lights working. This way, each source of electricity will do what it does best. Solar will keep it running to a minimal degree, and our cycling will keep it working to a larger degree.

              Maybe just for a laugh, they could have some kind of electronic game to amuse us while we cycle. For example the faster you peddle, the faster your "car" runs through the course. Remember those days of electronic versions of games like Space Invaders or Pacman? Well if you could make a Pole Position version, using LEDs, then you might have something. I truely believe that the possibilities are endless. Perhaps even a simple radio. Each person brings his own headphones, or rents them.
              ...but that's just my 2cents.
              Well, it's more like $2 to me, because this information about your tastes and preferences are important. The way I see it, this is all a marketing and economical issue.
              • The game would have to be paperboy, pedal to go faster, lean left and right on the bike to turn and jump up in the air (just the rider not the bike, i don't think you can bunny hop an exercise bike, but if anyone can...).

                And when you crash the bike flicks you off, and so prevents any long queues forming.

                You could even have a vr helmet for an immersive experience, although I'm not sure I'd want to share a helmet with a bunch of heavly sweating people, stickyness is not always a good thing...
          • Whoops! Shame on me for using the same abbreviation for two different things--the first two times I said AC I meant "Air Conditioning"--the evilest of power consumption devices.

            I knew someone once who took his apartment "off the grid." All I really remember about his setup is that he would have to cycle if he wanted the TV to work. That oughtta keep you from becoming a couch potato. And the more TV you watched, the better shape you'd be in!

            • Whoops! Shame on me for using the same abbreviation for two different things--the first two times I said AC I meant "Air Conditioning"
              :^) A-a-ah, I see.
              "Air Conditioning"--the evilest of power consumption devices
              Yes, agreed. It would be interesting to have a cooling system completely powered by humans and mechanical energy. I see problems with that, but I'm sure that there might be ways to work around it. Maybe we could pump water to pull the fan? I hate to see this turn really complex.
              I knew someone once who took his apartment "off the grid." All I really remember about his setup is that he would have to cycle if he wanted the TV to work. That oughtta keep you from becoming a couch potato. And the more TV you watched, the better shape you'd be in!
              That would be a very interesting set up. I wish more people did that, so that I could take a look.

              On a slightly unrelated note, I wonder how many kilowatt hours a single "average" male could generate in a 8 hour work day with the most efficient mechanical system.
              • I'm too tired to do this longhand, but here is a rough upper bound:

                Our assumptions:

                2000 Calorie diet
                Every Calorie is converted to electrical energy at 100% efficiency

                2000 Calories = 2000000 calories (we eat kilocalories)

                Play with conversions here:

                http://www.export911.com/convert/conFac-J.htm
                h ttp://www.export911.com/convert/conFac-J.htm

                Some magic happens and those 2000 Calories give us 2000 odd Watt hours. Well, really 2324 watt hours. Life isn't always big round numbers.

                Disclaimer: I'm not sure about the second conversion to watt-hours. I trusted the computer to do the right thing. Feel free to fix it if this all turned out wrong.

                Our bogus assumptions lead us to the maximum output. What does our back of the envelope calculation really mean? Lets do some more bad math:

                We'll call it 2400 total Watt hours
                You said 8 hours, so we divide by 8
                Our man only really makes 300 Watts in an hour

                300 Watts? Don't spend it all in one place. Here are some potential uses:
                A desktop computer without the monitor (maybe)
                Three, count them, three 100 watt light bulbs
                A small swamp cooler
                Probably a small TV

                Throw in the bothersome laws of thermodynamics and you won't even get that. Lets put it this way, if it runs on Duracells, you could probably power it without killing yourself. Incidentially, that brings back to the topic of the article.

                There is a reason China isn't exporting power. It isn't a lack of people or bicycles.
                • I'm too tired to do this longhand, but here is a rough upper bound:
                  Hey thanks for your time. I wouldn't know how correct you are without verifying the information. I could do that later. Whether or not you are correct, I appreciate the effort that you graciously took to answer my question. I know that at times I can be very tired and don't feel posting at /.
                  300 Watts? Don't spend it all in one place.
                  LOL. [I actually did laugh out loud! :^) ]
                  Throw in the bothersome laws of thermodynamics and you won't even get that. Lets put it this way, if it runs on Duracells, you could probably power it without killing yourself.
                  Hmm, too bad. That's the problem with science. It puts a wet blankets on our dreams and ambitions. There goes my plan to power New York with one guy riding a bike! ;^) Seriously, the good thing about science and other similar studies is that it can give us a balanced view and direction.

                  I really appeciate your comments. Perhaps there will be a market for "Charge your cell phone while you work out!" types of marketing? Not necessarily for the environmental aspect. That would be frosting on the cake. More for the convenience of having your cell phone charged more often, if you work out once a day.

                  We'll have to let economics have its way to see how things will turn out.

              • Re:This is awesome. (Score:2, Informative)

                by MConlon ( 246624 )
                [re: Air con]

                Yes, agreed. It would be interesting to have a cooling system completely powered by humans and mechanical energy. I see problems with that, but I'm sure that there might be ways to work around it. Maybe we could pump water to pull the fan? I hate to see this turn really complex.

                The main problem being that humans generate heat while doing work...

                On a slightly unrelated note, I wonder how many kilowatt hours a single "average" male could generate in a 8 hour work day with the most efficient mechanical system.

                Less than 1.6kwh. Not very impressive, is it? We can generate around 200W when we're going at a good (and sustainable) clip. Unfortunately we can't run at that level for 8 hours straight... closer to two hours.

                MJC.

                • Less than 1.6kwh. Not very impressive, is it? We can generate around 200W when we're going at a good (and sustainable) clip. Unfortunately we can't run at that level for 8 hours straight... closer to two hours.
                  *pop*

                  What was that!? Oh, it was the sound of my bubble bursting. *sigh* ;^)

                  Seriously, thanks for the numbers. I appreciate you bringing that up. As I said to someone who also replied with numbers, the good thing about science is that it gives us a balanced view on things, and then we end up wasting less time.

                  Take care!
            • I once heard a story about some group of college students doing the same thing as a project. For a while, they powered the electric can opener with a bicycle. Then they realized that opening a can by hand was far less effort.
            • That with the cycling to watch TV is nothing new, it was on CNN 2 years ago, an idea to prevent kids being, as you said, couch potatoes. Good idea really, a win-win situation too: if you don't want to sweat it, you get no TV, which leaves time for other things.

              I wonder if one should do that for the computer, it won't work though, you'd stop and ponder about why the code isn't working, and the whole thing dies!
      • As for this battery in the article, I hope that they modify it to allow the user to adapt it to any piece of electronic [laptops, flashlights, gameboys, alarm clocks, etc.]

        A wind-up alarm clock?!

        Prior art?!
        • A wind-up alarm clock?!

          Prior art?!
          I can't remember exactly what I was thinking, but it was probably along the lines of an electric/electronic clock. I presume that they don't use much power.

    • I don't know if I buy the economic argument (pardon MY pun), although I do agree with the environmental/consumptive argument.

      let's take this one step at a time.

      • Device = $80
      • Big Mac = $2.00

        That makes a total of 82 dollars for your first bit of power. now, a big mac contains 570 calories [kenkuhl.com]

        Now 570 calories will last about 1-2 hours depending on intensity of exercise, we can assume a bit longer than that for something like this, so let's say 3 hours

        That means your first 3 hours of talking cost 82$. Now I will give you that your costs go down as you use it more, and Big Mac's are cheap, but how do you spread the workout around?

        What is teh cost to charge a cell phone battery that lasts 3 hours? I would imagine the the cost of buying and operating a battery would be lower.

      • Re:This is awesome. (Score:2, Informative)

        by tburkhol ( 121842 )
        If a BigMac is 570 calories, dietary calories are 1000 thermodynamic calories, so at 100% efficiency, the burger is worth about 2400 kJ.

        FreeCharge claims their battery will hold 1 Amp-hour at 3.6 volts. That's about 13 kJ, so at 100% efficiency, you could get 180 full-charges out of 1 burger.

        Of course, muscles are only about 50% efficient, and require a whole lot of support energy-digestion, respiration, circulation, but let's imagine You are 30% efficient. You're down to 55 charges/BigMac.

        Wind-up cranks are notoriously inefficient. Let's call it 30% too, which is probably generous. Down to 17 charges/BigMac. $0.17 per charge

        Here in Atlanta, residential electricity is $0.044/kWh, and 1 kWh = 3600 kJ or 280 cell-phone charges. If we imagine the plug-in adapter is 80% efficient, you can knock that down to 220, but you're still looking at $0.0002 per charge.

        Don't forget, your Big Mac generates greenhouse gasses (CO2), and actually a lot more, because of your poor efficency.

    • Didn't the robots in The Matrix do this? SirSlud is one of them! Get him!
  • "and it will never go flat a long as your arms work!"

    AHA! I knew there was a catch!

  • My mobile phone currently weighs about 150g and is 2cm thick, it is already a burden by today's standards. How many people will actually carry this around with their everyday phone?

    The laptop battery version looks promising though, but hasn't a step-charging laptop battery been posted on /. before too.

    • How many people will actually carry this around with their everyday phone?
      Not many, but I would. My needs are rather minimal, and I take transit. I don't mind sitting there and turning a crank for a while. I think that people wouldn't appreciate having to do this for the business use.

      I'm surprised that there haven't been infomercials that offer products that can help to supplement the power to the home, or especially a log cabin or something.
  • While clicking "freeplay" yields a bad link, This Link should bring you to a good review of this service... [computerworld.com]
  • Is this cell charger really a solution? All these so-called 'solutions' overlook the fact that energy sources are not the problem. The people who live in the third world - and that is most people - do not have anything like the amount of energy consumption that we do. Their low life expectancy and ill health is due to the fact that all the good land is taken up by western corporations to overfeed us, not because of a lack of televisions or electric toothbrushes. These people are living proof that the power consumption of the rich world is totally unnecessary. All these 'renewable' energy sources are not solutions at all, they are irrelevant to the problem.

    The major problem that this planet has today is the incredible capacity a minority of humans has to consume ever increasing quantities of everything. This is the problem, yet it is never addressed; never even recognised. Instead the problem is seen as one of continuing to consume as much as possible; of finding alternative things to consume when the current consumables run out. The green gurus keep parroting out the same old crap about treading lightly on the earth, and their followers keep lapping it all up, sending in their subscriptions, buying the videos, going to the meetings, writing their letters, recycling their ideologies and reciting their platitudes - anything rather than face up to the fact that the party is over and hard times are on the way.

    We are running out of slaves. There is a world shortage of slave material and the rich idle West is too deeply habituated to the 'good' life to see that it is time to face up to that reality. Never mind all the other species, we don't even provide the whole human population with this level of consumption, most of the rest of humanity are slaves of the west too! The clever slave driver will not drive the slaves too hard; they are no use to him dead. We have not even been clever. Now we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. We have used up most of the earth's available stored energy, and are laying into the latest deliveries. The soon-to-come shift into large scale plundering of this energy will further accellerate the already alarming rate of devastation. That these 'solutions' are being touted as 'green' is the ultimate example of Orwellian doublespeak. These people claim to be looking towards a new future - as indeed they are, with the same rapacious eye that the first colonialists viewed the 'new' world of 500 years ago.

    So what is the solution then? All we need to do is to look at the problem: Consumption. It is very, very simple. We must reduce consumption. Now. Not in 2002 when the UN sets some kind of target. Not next year when the government raises some kind of tax a bit. What kind of lifeforms are we who need some kind of financial incentive to save ourselves from oblivion? Are we really so powerless that we can't stop buying things until the government tells us we have to? Is it really the government's fault that millions of supposedly free-thinking individuals go shopping in vast depersonalised hypermarkets miles from their homes on new bypasses built specially for that purpose?
    • Unfortunately, history is a good example of why problems like this are usually cancerous in nature, and require a violent, unjustifiable (and yet completely justifiable, at a macroscopic level) response.

      I 100% agree with you, but please make reference to a culture/society in the past that has successfully curbed its own problems when the downside of those problems were not felt by them? I dont think its happened much.

      Nevermind that our entire economic system is geared towards consumption. Its hard to turn an entire nation or three into martyrs.
      • Unfortunately, history is a good example of why problems like this are usually cancerous in nature, and require a violent, unjustifiable (and yet completely justifiable, at a macroscopic level) response.

        Of course. We must stop buying these things. We can't extricate ourselves from the sick parasitic system overnight - the grip is too tight, real alternatives either don't exist or are on the way out and very fragile. So this must be our priority. We must seek out those places, co-ops, small grocers etc and support them, find other people and work with them in the hope that we will enhance each other's efforts. The alternatives may be difficult to get but this is of no relevance, if an alternative exists it is the thing to do, regardless of inconvenience. If no alternative exists this is usually a non-essential item.

        (It is said that the main reason that community supported agriculture has not taken off is because the corporations are opposed to it. Could it perhaps be because the vast majority of the population are too apathetic to get up and find out about these things?)

        You must stop working for the system, as well as contributing to the infrastructure that maintains that system, whether that necessitates the removal of your open source code from the public domain so large conglomerates cannot benefit of it, or ceasing from buying stupid T-shirts from ThinkGeek with pseudo-pithy statements on the front that do nothing save corrupt the environment further and/or prove that you're a bearded, long haired linux geek that lives in your parents' basement. We must do this regardless of the personal hardship this may seem to entail. This is a personal thing. There is no set course, we must all find our own and help each other. No leader will be needed, we must take back our self-respect and stop relying on cult figures and green gurus, who are obviously not up to the task. We don't need any experts to tell us what to do, we pretend that we need them because we don't really want to do it.

        Stop consuming.

        It seems bad, but if we do it, maybe we will start living again.
        • Your solution is a bit extreme.

          Simply cutting back and not buying every single gadget produced would help. There are people who are devoted to living "more simply" who advocate giving up some 'luxuries', slowing the influx of 'junk' into your life and making other adjustments. See Live simple [december.com] for more information.

      • Unfortunately, history is a good example of why problems like this are usually cancerous in nature, and require a violent, unjustifiable (and yet completely justifiable, at a macroscopic level) response.

        Hence terrorism.
    • We must reduce consumption.
      I agree. I think that this battery is good in that in can reduce the amount of electricity *consumed* by other sources. I don't have to plug it in anymore and use up electricity created by hydro dams, and coal burning plants.

      This won't catch on for a lot of people, but if we want to do it in an economical way, we should let it get out onto the market first to be sold to those who could use it now. I could use it. I ride transit, so sitting there cranking a phone won't be a problem for me. It's only a matter of how much the phone costs compared to other batteries.

      Hopefully, this begins to catch on, and once it does, it can be sold in the form of a stress reliever or whatever the marketers can come up with.

      But first, try to sell it to the campers who like to take their ham radios out with them.

      Another helpful thing would be to get the battery manufactorers to standardize on their batteries, so that one adapter can be used for many phones. Then the adaptors can be sold seperately. Only one adapter is really needed per house hold.
      • And so, what about those of us who get on an electric powered treadmill which consumes electricity simply to use up excess calories, esentially, throwing away energy twice and then needing to shower, drink more water, waste more resources, etc....? I'm sure you can supply us with at least 200-300 words of social commentary on that. And then, when you're done wasting your energy on that, we'll all waste energy reading it. So, what's the point?
        • And so, what about those of us who get on an electric powered treadmill...
          I don't know, because I'm not one of you. I don't do that kind of stuff. If I want to exercise, I'd go for a walk or do push ups. The technology that I speak of is only for those of us/you who produce motion with non-electrical devices. If your treadmill uses electricity, I'd never recommend that you try to get energy out of it, unless it actually helped to save electricity in total. Of course.

          The tread mill is probably the worse case scenario, however.
          and then needing to shower
          I don't shower till before bed time, so I wouldn't need to shower more than once. As it is, I turn off the water when I put on soap or lather my head, so I hardly think that anyone should be lecturing me on water consumption. However, you have a valid point. My ideas are only for people who work out already. I wouldn't go out of by way to get people to exercise more just for the sake of "generating electricity".
          drink more water
          Drinking water can only be a good thing, even if it is only perspired out. It's important to cleanse our systems.
          I'm sure you can supply us with at least 200-300 words of social commentary on that.
          Why would anybody need to do that? If it saves money, energy and time, *and* people *will* use the idea [without being forced], then what is the problem? I'm only suggesting an idea, not finding a way to force anybody to do anything.
    • Goodbye karma...I shall miss thee...

      Consumption, by definition, increases demand for goods. Increased demand for goods creates jobs. Jobs give people the means to buy what they want/need. This is good. Consumption helps these areas which are impoverished.

      Your arguments are based on false economic ideas. Unfortunately, people rarely understand how economics works. Read up on the issue and I think you'll understand that the problems of the world are not formed by our culture but because of tyrannical or just plain stupid leaders of countries.

      Leaving the realm of economics...you speak out against conformity in your post. I ask: what is so wrong with conforming? People don't understand that it is impossible to not conform. You must belong to some sort of 'crowd' to survive, both mentally and physically. You are not defined by the clothes you wear, what OS you use, what TV you own, or what bands you listen to. As such, don't reject something simply because it is popular. A lot of /.'ers seem to hate the idea that even a big company can have a good idea or product.
    • Most of the problems of the developing world are politcal, not economic. Scratch a poor third world nation that is suffering from starvation, and you will generally find a despotic ruling regime, not a transnational corporation enslaving the people.

      This is NOT to say that there are not nasty transnational corporations doing bad things, but for the most part in most places where large numbers of people are facing starvation today it is due to their despotic rulers.

      Examples:

      Zimbabwe, formerly a breadbasket country, is facing famine in large part do to Mugabe's disastrous land use policies.

      North Korea, suffering famine recently ( although I haven't checked the status lately ) due largely to the mismanagement of their communist government.

      If you really want to know who is oppressing the people of the third world, look not to the developed world and it's consuption, but rather to the pointless excesses of the rulers of the third world.

      • Scratch a poor third world nation that is suffering from starvation, and you will generally find a despotic ruling regime, not a transnational corporation enslaving the people.

        Actually, the standard operating procedure is that the despotic ruling regime enslaving the people is supported by the World Bank, the IMF and a selection of transnational corpororations (who just happen to plunder the natural and human resources).

        See John Pilger's The New Rulers of the World [amazon.com] for more information.

        Regards, Ralph.

    • And what kind of environmentally friendly ways are you using to compose your replies or post them?

      I've been reading your kind of environmental elitism preaching about how the rest of us need to sacrifice for years.

      Presumably you think "your message" is important enough to exempt you from the reduction of consumption the rest of us "need".

      You might find it interesting to track down the origin of your message... who funded the studies that are used as the basis of your advice. Who funded the "deep ecology" agenda?

      You will be surprised and not plesantly.

  • Limited market (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Qwerpafw ( 315600 )
    I have always looked at windup-power sources as having a very limited market.

    The thing is, batteries are just fine for most people. The only situations where batteries are not good enough would be :

    a) when its in storage for such a long time, the battery might die (and this really almost doesn't apply to most modern batteries)
    b) when you need so many batterys worth of charge, and its just not feasible to buy more (like hiking, being on a boat, etc)
    c) when you absolutely need reliability, and if you use a battery, it could die, and then you would be fscked for some reason or another (again, like camping...)

    So it seems to me the only people who would want this sort of thing are people using it in very remote areas, or disaster survivalists.

    And here's the problem with those markets. Cell phones are inherently based on having a lot of neaarby infrastructure. You need an operating phone network, an operating nearby tower, and so on and so forth. And when you are in a remote are, those things often just aren't going to be available. The same applies to a nuclear holocaust sort of situation.

    See, the success of the freeplay radios and flashlights has been basically because, though they are bulkier and less convinient, they allow for a great deal of freedom. You don't need to have batteries, you don't need infrastructure around you, etc.

    And cell phones definately are not "free" in any sense of the word. chances are, anywhere where a cell phone would work, you can find a place to rechange your batteries. So this is an almost paradoxical product. I have a fair degree of difficulty in thinking up any situation where this would be useful. and finally, unlike the flashlight (which, by the way, I own), you would not be able to stop whatever you are doing, recharge, and start again, due to the nature of cell phone calls.

    So, aside from the "coolness" factor (which is pretty nifty ;), I can't really see a market for this.
    • Well if Motorola didn't mess up, we'd all be using Satelite phones. This product would be very helpful in that case. I'm sure in a couple of years we will be using satelite phones so this technology is maybe just a bit ahead of its time.

      -- D3X
  • Haha - fear my l33t karma-whoring skillz.

    Since the site's down, here is the Google cached copy. [216.239.39.100]
  • Trevor Baylis, idea man behind the Freeplay radio, had previously been working on the Electric shoe [quickcobbler.com] charger. But that domain [theelectricshoeco.com] and light searching reveal no sign of its fruition. This story [zdnet.co.uk] mentions the shoe model charging a mobile device like a phone.
    Here [bbc.co.uk] is the BBC story on the wind up model from July 2001.
    Here [wired.com] is the Wired story from January of this year.
  • People with normal cell phones in cars are bad enough but now they have to concentrate on winding the phone up too?

    Yet another reason not to go outside.

  • Kinetic Charger (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have a watch that uses the kinetic energy from arm movement to keep itself ticking along (ie you shake it every now and then). Why can't they put something like that in a phone? Most poeple carry their phone with them all day, so they could be using it to charge the battery as they walk.
  • It's actually less overhead for us if it was actually pointing where its supposed to be pointing. Unfortunately whoever transferred the
    domain to us never input their DNS settings so
    it was just sitting there on parked defaults when
    this happened.

    We're trying to contact the owner/operators now and get the real IP's in place.

  • Why has no one imagined a Beowulf cluster of these?

    /me ducks the rocks and bottles

  • better workout (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cyberop5 ( 520141 ) on Monday June 10, 2002 @10:05PM (#3677098) Homepage Journal
    there are more fun ways to excersize an arm while on the fone with your girlfriend...



    .. like curling weights
  • god damn those tree huggers... goddamn them all to hell ** cranks phone **
  • "...it will never go flat a long as your arms work!"

    Does this mean that porn could be considered a perpetual motion device?
  • The URL doesn't work... you can see it here [windupradio.com]

  • Windup linux (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ukryule ( 186826 ) <slashdot&yule,org> on Monday June 10, 2002 @10:57PM (#3677333) Homepage
    This reminded me of the the windup Linux Webserver [uclinux.com].

    So now, all you need to do is connect the phone up to the webserver to provide the network connection, and you have a fully mobile, fully human powered solution.
  • Just became that much more difficult...
    (must extend text not to be penalized for one liner)
    (mod me down if its not funny...)
    I'm a virgin.. Who will give me my first karma point?
  • If you want to be taken seriously as an editor or writer, it's important to know that:

    "it's" means it is

    and

    "its" is the possessive.

    Slashdot's editors make this mistake often. That may have been fine in 1999 where dumb kids had huge valuations, but it doesn't fly in this decade.

  • Tires and Coke go flat, batteries die! ;)

  • Eh. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheSHAD0W ( 258774 ) on Tuesday June 11, 2002 @12:27AM (#3677637) Homepage
    At first, I thought this would be a great idea for an emergency cell phone. Leave it in your car, and if you break down or get in an accident, just a little winding and you can call for help. No worries about batteries dying.

    Then I realized that if you got in an accident, you might not be ABLE to wind the thing. A phone meant for real emergencies would need to be operable without having to wind it up first.

    I'd recommend using one of those battery packs that takes AA cells, then filling it with Eveready's Energizer Lithium AAs. Not only would they give a long talk time, they also have an incredible shelf life. Ideal for emergency use.

    • Re:Eh. (Score:3, Informative)

      by matthew.thompson ( 44814 )
      Trevor Bayliss, the inventor of the original Windup Radio, sprung (pun intended) upon the human power idea whilst listening to or watching a programme about how the developing world was trying to spread information regarding HIV and AIDS by radio but that batteries were prohibitively expensive.

      Freeplay was set up to provide these radios to the developing countries at a cost they could afford - partially subsidised by the sale of the devices in the developed world.

      It is more likely that instead of this device being designed directly for the likes of you and me it has been designed for the places where mobile telephony is about the only form of telephone available and where electricity is likely to be in short supply or intermittently available.

      That we can buy the devices is probably a way to subsidise the sale of them in much the same way as the radios.
      • Yeah, I heard this too. Ironic then that if you want to buy one of these radios in the US it will cost you $70.00 USD!!!

        looks to me like the reason they are so cheap in Africa is that filthy fat Americans are paying most of the per unit costs.

  • I'd love to see that happening to use with my PDA. Squeezing the toy would roduces electricity by recycling the wind going thru the whistle using a tiny dynamo. A recharging battery would be located in the toy. The gesture would feel more natural I think. Squeak it! ;-)

    PPA, the girl next door.
  • Remember that Freeplay came into being to market clockwork radios, primarily to third-world countries where power supplies were unpredictable or expensive.

    This is where the clockwork cell phone power supply comes into its own, providing communications in isolated areas where there might not be a power supply or a land line. Just so long as you're in range of a transmitter...

  • With a cluster of monkeys cranking a cluster of these you could power one of your Beowulf cluster.

  • power sources (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've wondered if health clubs/gyms could harness the power from all those excercise bikes and stairmasters as a power source.??
  • Well, with this little gizmo, all the unabombers will head into the woods with their hand powered cell phones and a few of these little bad boys and they will be up and running...

    Perhaps an unlikely story, but perhaps someone who is misguided and also has a lot of time on their hands can perhaps spend all day charging these things up....

    Cool concept for those who like to camp in the woods but don't want to leave the luxury of a cell phone behind... if they can only find a cell tower now. :-/
  • Unless someone has forgotten their car charger (Unlikely - My car charger is often the one thing I remember, as it's always in my car), there is no need for the FreeCharge.

    The FreeCharge is good for those who will be going where there is no power - Like on camping trips. Businesspeople don't need it - They can bring their "brick" wall charger and plug it in at the hotel.
  • If we put solar panels on all the cell towers to power those suckers and take them off the grid, and power all the phones this way, then we will have reached renewable energy nirvana. This actually sounds possible. I'd pay $10 more per month for a cell system that worked that way. I wonder how many tons of coal (not to mention CO2 in the atmosphere) a system like this would save.

    • I'd pay $10 more per month for a cell system that worked that way.

      Why? If the telecom can install a tower in east bumf*%k with having to run power to it, they could probably cover the costs of adding the solar cell and possibly a wind turbine.. This should cost you less, not more..

  • ....Hold on while I pull over and wind up my phone.

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