Gizmodo: piezoelectric

Piezoelectric Nanowires Could Power Future Gadgets Using Blood Flow

Jack Loftus — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Did that headline get your blood pumping? Good. In the future you'll make a great battery.

This is because, in the future, scientists seem to think that piezoelectric nanowires could find a nice home inside our blood vessels. There, they'd use the energy created by blood flow to power our gadgets, pacemakers, or any number of other people-powered devices future inventors can think up. That sounds great in theory, but I assume that, like with most things I put in my body today that sound great and feel good, it will probably cause cancer or something.

Regardless, the scientists want to let us know there are no practical or commercial uses planned for these zinc oxide nanowires. Not for a long while anyway. This means you can stop digging around for that vein now. Oh, that's for the heroin? Nevermind then. [Live Science via Engadget]

Nanopiezoelectric Jacket Harnesses Power From Hamster Movement

Mark Wilson — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Nanopiezoelectric research hopes to pull tiny amounts of power from minuscule movements, like breathing. Now, Georgia Tech researchers have made a nanopiezoelectric jacket for hamsters that successfully generates .1 volts of electricity.

Woven from zinc oxide nanowires (strands that are 1/50th the width of a human hair), Georgia Tech's hamster jacket is the first nanopiezoelectric device to successfully harvest energy from animals. How much energy could those hamsters produce in real world application? Right now, it would take 1,000 hamsters to charge a cellphone. A human-sized jacket could power an iPod.

Since the theory has been proven to work in a lab setting, there's nothing stopping the technology from being scaled to fit humans—other than the obvious engineering hurdles that must be crossed to make a giant nanotech jacket. Such large scale testing should commence in about three years, according to researchers. [msnbc via Geekologie]

Pedestrian Power Will Generate Holiday Lights at Shibuya Station, Tokyo

Elaine Chow — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST

Tokyo's Shibuya train has a special installation for Christmas that uses its pedestrians' footsteps to generate electricit. A mat using piezoelectric gadgetry runs a LED display board and a small holiday lights display.

The roughly 35-inch squared mat near the Hachiko dog statue at Shibuya station generates roughly 0.5W every time someone weighing 132 lbs steps on it. The amount of foot power it's already harvested is displayed on an LED wall.

Strangely, the installation will only be there until the 25th. I guess the Japanese are really good with taking their holiday lights down as soon as Christmas is over? [Digital World Tokyo]

Electronic Hogu Measures Just How Hard Your Foe Can Beat You Up

AddyDugdale — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:15:00 EDT

The final project of a team from Cornell University, this electronic hogu, modelled above by a lantern-jawed mannequin called Bob, uses piezoelectric sensors and a microcontroller to measure the kicks and punches between contestants in a Tae Kwan Do bout. Piezoelectric sensors and a microcontroller are implanted in the transmitter side, while the receiver side has wireless receiver circuitry, another microcontroller, and a monitor to display the score. As that great black belt of martial arts would say, "Haiiiii-YAAAAAAA!" Yes, I'm talking Miss Piggy. [Cornell via GEARFUSE and HacknMod]

Piezing Dress Concept Generates Electricity as She Walks

Haroon Malik — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:30:00 EDT

Oasis were right, she is electric, or at least she would be with the Piezing dress concept, designed by Amanda Parkes. The concept was shown off at the 2nd Skin: Imaginative Designs in Digital & Analog Clothing event in San Francisco, and it uses piezoelectric material around the joints to generate electricity when motion is detected. Unfortunately, the current isn't used instantaneously as some sort of nipple stimulator, instead it is stored in a small, removable battery, which can then be discharged when required.

Clothing concepts that double up with unusual functions have been around for a while, but this one seems to be one of the more useful and practical solutions, even if it isn't the epitome of fashion. (Disclaimer: I am not a fashion pundit.) [textually]

Design: Kineticel, the Human Powered Battery Charger

Jason Chen — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 12:59:15 EDT

One of the ideas submitted to the Next Generation competition featured in Metropolis Magazine was this Kinetic Energy-harnessing battery charger by Yael Miller. The concept is to take something we're already doing—such as working out, flopping around in a baby rocker, vacuuming, or flushing the toilet—add the piezoelectric effect, and come out with batteries that are charged by "human power." Imagine all the television remotes we could power just from flushing our droppings. [Reuben Miller via Oh Gizmo via Boing Boing Gadgets]