Researchers Build Wearable Generators 84
schliz writes "From the itnews article: 'Bioengineers from the University of Auckland have developed cheap, lightweight rubber power generators that could harvest up to a Watt of power if embedded in shoes. The researchers built on "dielectric elastomer generator" technology that used the movements of a flexible, non-conductive material to build up charge in attached electrodes.'"
Re:Help power cars? (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if something like this could be embedded in the tires of a car to help generate electricity to power it self. Would it actually be able to generate enough electricity to make it worthwhile for an electric car though?
Unfortunately, the extra energy you'd get out of the generators would be provided by the engine (conservation of energy). You'd only get a benefit if the car was coasting downhill by turning the potential energy into electric energy. Since energy conversion isn't 100% efficient, you'd actually lose energy and be further behind in the process.
Re:Up to a Watt of power (Score:4, Insightful)
One watt and then if you want another watt you have to buy some more shoes? I can't see it catching on.
A watt is a unit of power, not energy. The lifetime of the shoes is unspecified. Speaking of a watt, that's a lot of power for an energy harvester like this, and sounds too good to be true - because it is. The article only shows a 10mW generator, though that is still enough for periodic radio transmissions. Also, I would guess because it is electrostatic in operation, it would also work as a fairly large capacitor for temporarily storing the energy.