New Twist on Power Walking

An anonymous reader writes "Carrying a newly designed backpack loaded with between 44 and 84 pounds of gear, users generate enough electricity to simultaneously power an MP3 player, a PDA, night vision goggles, a handheld GPS, a CMOS image decoder, a GSM terminal in talk mode, and Bluetooth."

There's another one on the market

[Anonymous Coward]

In Europe you can now get the O'Neill H2 series backpack, which has a solarcell to power your phone, iPod, etc. It also features bluetooth and integrated phone and iPod controls.
See this link [oneilleurope.com] for more info.

and how about kinetic energy

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember that it exists hand watches that are powered by kinetic energy... searching in google I found two devices:

http://www.designawards.com.au/ADA/04-05/student/1 32/132.htm [designawards.com.au]

and another one made by seike for its clocks:

http://www.ofrei.com/page867.html [ofrei.com]

Anybody know something likeness?

Re:Gee

[moonbender]

Actually, it's not like the power generator weighed 50 pounds, the backpack just needs some weight to work - more weight means more power generated. If your backpack already weighs a lot, you're good to go. In other words, RTFA. ;)

Picture and Details

[enoraM]

Here's a picture http://www.heise.de/bilder/63699/0/1 [heise.de] . The aparatus just takes a small part of the weight. However, you have to put something in your backpack, whatever it is, to generate power.

Re:That would make you

[isorox]

Except they were wearing plain clothes, did not shout "police, stop!", he didn't run until after he'd picked up a newspaper, walked through the ticket bararier, and saw a train about to leave, same as any other london commuter

Re:That would make you

[PeeAitchPee]

Except they were wearing plain clothes, did not shout "police, stop!", he didn't run until after he'd picked up a newspaper, walked through the ticket bararier, and saw a train about to leave, same as any other london commuter

That's not what eyewitnesses said the day of the shooting immediately after it happened. [cnn.com] But you're absolutely right -- I have no doubt that what the British press has reported on the matter is completely unbiased, especially after the Daily Mirror last year made up the story about British soldiers pissing on Iraqi prisoners [mirror.co.uk] and either fabricated (probably) or used obviously fake photographic evidence.

Re:Ob Snow Crash reference

[jellomizer]

I think you missed the point. After RTFA the gear between 40lbs-80lbs is your normal gear that you will take in a backpack. Clothing, Tent, Sleeping Bag, Towel, Toiletries, Oder Free Soap, Pocket Knife, First Aid Kit, Cooking pans, Fire starter kit, Water, food. All this combined could make the pack easily 50-80 lbs. the article never gave the weight to the pack when it was empty but they did state it did help you carry yourself better thus making the load more efficient.

Re:why is this new? why a backpack?

[onpaws]

A backpack makes better sense because it is jostling a large amount of weight predictably in the vertical direction. F = m * a. On the other hand/knee, your wrist or ankle-mounted generator is only moving that body part, a much smaller mass.

Re:That would make you

[nfk]

You're a bit behind on the news.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,165960,00.html [foxnews.com]

I don't know if the final report came out yet, so I'm not sure this is the official version. Google around and you will find more.

If you are walking

[loadquo]

It is recommended [globalsecurity.org] that you don't carry more 40 to 55 pounds. In a combat situation anyway. And I don't see why this doesn't apply to backpackers. External frame backpacks can also be quite heavy, so it would be interesting to see how much the backpack+motor would cut into your weight allowance.

Re:84 pounds to power devices?

[FirienFirien]

If you're just looking for enough power for a game boy, you might well be able to do it with a standard bag. 84lbs is the top end of the power range.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7970 [newscientist.com] has another viewpoint, and even a clear picture.

Re:If you are walking

[tazanator]

As a former infantry man, I carried 35 lbs of; water (common load in the US is 1/2 gallon, in Iraq they carry 2 gallons), ammo(230 rounds 5.56 for M-16/ 600-1000 rounds for machineguns), compass, clothing (12 lbs), knives (bayonet pocket and leatherman) and other gear (the M-16 is 12.5 lbs) my combat stripped ruck (wet weather gear, cold weather gear, 3 days food / 1 change clothes and 3 pairs socks & underware) is 35 lbs, many troops are carring even higher weights (the radio operator carries a 35lb radio in his ruck the machine gunners carry extra ammo...) The weight the troops carrry is already very high and once bullets start fling the first thing dropped is the backpack.

Re:About as practical as a backpack full of bricks

[hqm]

Nobody seems to get it, the load is not some extra stuff you need to put in your pack - the machine just needs some weight to swing around. So the weight can be your dirty laundry, tent, laptop, whatever is in the pack already.