[NetBehaviour] Backpack generates a powerful punch

[marc]

*Backpack generates a powerful punch*

NewScientist.com
Paul Marks

A backpack that generates electricity as its wearer strolls along has 
been developed by experts in human locomotion in the US.

By harnessing the loping up-and-down motion of our hips as we walk, the 
backpack's freely-moving load bounces up and down, generating up to 7 
watts. That is more than enough to power cellphones with power-draining 
functions like colour widescreens or Wi-Fi and GPS connections.

The developers hope their suspended-load backpack will be a particular 
boon for troops, field scientists, explorers and disaster relief workers 
in remote locations.

The generator has been developed by Larry Rome and his colleagues at the 
University of Pennsylvania, US, with funding from the US Office of Naval 
Research. Their aim was to relieve soldiers already carrying 36-kilogram 
backpacks of the need to carry many spare batteries to power their GPS, 
communications and night-vision devices.

more...
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7970

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.netbehaviour.org/pipermail/netbehaviour/attachments/20050909/8b2b08cd/attachment.htm>