Turning Heat Into Sound Into Electricity

WrongSizeGlass writes "Science Daily is reporting on work by physicists at the University of Utah who have developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. 'We are converting waste heat to electricity in an efficient, simple way by using sound [...] It is a new source of renewable energy from waste heat.' They report that technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars."

But....

[a.phoenicis]

But does it change waste heat into electricity? I'm not quite sure based on that write-up...

Sound to electricity.

[snowraver1]

Now they need to refine this to 100% effiecency and attach one to my wife.

Massive /. potential

[u-bend]

There's so much waste heat here (Star Wars, Linux, browser, KDE/Gnome debates), that we could power a city and rock out at the same time.

Cool idea!

[thewiz]

Er, hot idea!

Um, maybe I should stop now.

Use in autos?

[evildarkdeathclicheo]

Since the internal combustion engine is really a noisy heat pump, wouldn't this be of use in hybrids, or perhaps as an alternative alternator? (alternatator? alternatatoe?) Perhaps in the cubicle farms of tomorrow, we'll all be sitting on these heat-powered piezo tubes and fed a diet of beans to power our own workstations.

Re:Sound to electricity.

[Wicko]

Save electricity! Piss off your wife! Attach to your kids!

Dog Whistle

[Apocalypse111]

Symko says the devices won't create noise pollution. First, as smaller devices are developed, they will convert heat to ultrasonic frequencies people cannot hear.

So now we've turned my car into a mobile dog-whistle, causing even the well-behaved dogs to bark at me.

Ooh, on the other hand, maybe we could get the sound into the frequency range at which various crystal wine glasses shatter... I've got some asshole neighbors who could do without those particular bits of glasswear.

Re:Sound to electricity.

[Simply Curious]

On the other hand, any inefficiency would show up as heat, allowing it to cycle through towards absolute zero.

Wait a minute...

Ack! Stupid Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Re:Efficiency as opposed to thermoelectric?

[cosinezero]

And from the looks of that giant glass pipe lit by a blowtorch, my money's on the researchers being 100% Wasted while thinking this one up, too.

Less heat is good...

[FlyByPC]

...as long as the sound-conversion part doesn't leak too much. My workstation already sounds like a jet engine.

Heat to Sound to electricity.

[malvidin]

Well, luckily my wife doesn't need to be loud. She's that hot.

Re:Finally...

[The_Wilschon]

You think Steve Ballmer is hot? Ewwww

Cold Fusion

[ISoldat53]

Isn't this the same group that brought us cold fusion?

Re:to heck with "waste" heat...

[woolio]

if they can actually do this, then set up massive arrays of it on top of active volcanoes and other natural heat sources. As the claim is they end up with electricity, that means there is less heat, and we have this maybe/maybe not global warming thing going on. Seems we can reduce a lot of the natural warming of the earth's atmosphere with something that can do this, if it really can...

Yes, but can you imagine the environmental effects caused by cooling a volcano at "Faster-Than-Nature-Indended" rate?

The environmentalists would raise hell!

Re:Heat to Sound to electricity.

[jbeaupre]

This is Slashdot, which means we have to double check whether you are actually married or what you mean by hot. Let's hope you mean online "wife" and not that you set your real wife on fire.

Re:Heat to Sound to electricity.

[pan_piper]

Well, luckily my wife doesn't need to be hot. She's shocking.

Re:Cold Fusion

[FoXDie]

Allaire?

Re:Heat to Sound to electricity.

[StikyPad]

Well, luckily my wife doesn't need to be shocking. She's battery powered.

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